Liz Cannon, architect of US curbs on Chinese vehicles, resigns as Commerce weighs policy shifts

An official whose office kept nearly all Chinese cars out of the US market on national security grounds has left the Commerce Department, according to people familiar with the matter. Elizabeth “Liz” Cannon resigned as executive director for Information and Communications Technology and Services, an office established in 2022 to examine supply chain threats from foreign adversaries.

Two sources said that had she not resigned, Cannon would have been reassigned, and that the administration plans to place a political appointee in the role. Her final day is expected to be February 20, people said, reported Reuters.

Recent policy developments

Her impending departure follows the department’s decision to abandon a proposal to impose restrictions on Chinese drones, despite concerns that US adversaries could remotely access and manipulate the devices, exposing sensitive US data. The ICTS office, which operates under the Bureau of Industry and Security, has also not issued expected restrictions addressing medium- and heavy-duty truck imports.

A year earlier, under then-President Joe Biden, the office finalised rules that effectively barred Chinese passenger vehicles due to concerns about data collection and the manipulation of vehicles linked to navigation systems. Those rules remain in place, and the current administration has not indicated plans to alter them. Donald Trump has at times said he would welcome a Chinese carmaker building vehicles in the US.

More from World

TikTok deal done, Trump plans to visit China in April and host Xi by year-end 'They make mistakes': Trump says he 'feels terribly' about immigration crackdown in one-year review

“If they want to come in and build a plant and hire you and hire your friends and your neighbors, that’s great, I love that,” Trump said during a speech in Detroit earlier this month. “Let China come in.”

“BIS is committed to using its ICTS authorities to address national security risks from foreign technology,” a spokesperson for the bureau said in a statement Friday. “Recent staffing changes at the ICTS Office will strengthen the Office and ensure that it continues to deliver for the American people.”

Trade context and export approvals

Measures restricting both imports from and exports to China have been put on hold at the department following a fragile trade truce reached last year between the world’s two largest economies. The administration also recently approved exports of Nvidia H200 and other advanced AI chips to China ahead of a meeting scheduled between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in April.

The Commerce Department said in September it planned rules that could restrict or ban Chinese drones and withdrew the proposal on January 9, months after sending it to the White House for review. It also said in September it was considering a rule covering trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds from China and other foreign adversaries, after curbs on passenger vehicles. That rule is currently on hold, sources said.

Quick Reads

View All

‘Russia must be ready to end war’: Zelensky as trilateral peace talks open in Abu Dhabi

Suicide bomber kills 7, injures 25 at wedding ceremony in northwest Pakistan

Previous actions and responses

In 2024, in what was described as a first-of-its-kind determination, Cannon’s office barred the sale of antivirus software made by Russia’s Kaspersky Lab in the US, finding Russia’s influence over the company posed a significant security risk.

“It’s going to be hard to find somebody who can come in and replace the job Liz Cannon was doing,” said Geoffrey Gertz, a senior fellow at the Center for New American Security, a Washington think tank that specialises in national security. “Even if we are in a period of detente, it’s important to have the expertise to think through the risks and possible actions,” said Gertz. “If not, it’s going to come back to haunt us.”

Cannon is the latest Commerce Department official to leave government under the Trump administration. Kevin Kurland, who held several senior roles during 28 years at BIS, left in December. Dan Clutch, former acting director of the Office of Export Enforcement, started at Caterpillar in August. Matthew Borman, a long-serving export control official, joined the Akin Gump law firm after being pushed out last spring.

Cannon joined the Commerce Department from Microsoft in January 2024 after more than a decade at the US Department of Justice, where she supervised and prosecuted criminal cases involving export control and sanctions violations, including the 2017 case against Chinese telecommunications equipment firm ZTE, which paid nearly $900 million as part of a guilty plea.