State Clarifies Export Control Reform Changes to ITAR
The State Department amended the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to “streamline, simplify and clarify” changes made to the ITAR through Export Control Reform. The Obama administration has so far finalized rules to transfer items from 15 of the 21 U.S. Munitions List categories to the Commerce Control List (see 14073001). This Oct. 10 final rule takes effect immediately, and makes a number of technical as well as classification revisions.
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Grenade launchers are still controlled in USML Category II (Guns and Armament), and specifically in paragraph “a,” which regulates guns over a certain caliber, this final rule said. Under the specially designed regulations, catch-all controls are “only those that generically control parts, components, accessories, and attachments for a specified article and do not identify a specific specially designed part, component, accessory, or attachment,” the final rule said, adding that helmets controlled in Category VIII (Aircraft and Associated Equipment) are given a specially designed definition.
Controls for forgings, castings, and machined bodies are also moved to ITAR Section 120.6 through the final rule, and State increased the level that lithium-ion batteries are controlled in Category VIII to 28 volts of direct current nominal to greater than 38 VDC nominal as a way to avoid controls on civilian transactions. State also added the phrase “electric-generating” to the control description of fuel cells in Category VIII to “clarify that fuel bladders and fuel tanks are not within this control.” State made changes to military training exports, as well.
(Federal Register 10/10/14)