BIS, State Plan to Issue USML Category XV ECR Final Rules Before End of Obama Administration
The Bureau of Industry and Security and the State Department now plan to issue coordinated final rules shifting U.S. Munitions List (USML) Category XV items (spacecraft systems and associated equipment) to the Commerce Control List (CCL) in January, before the end of the Obama administration, government officials said during the BIS Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee (RPTAC) meeting Dec. 13. BIS and State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls hoped to issue those final rules by the end of this year (see 1611020030). “We didn’t quite make it by December 31 … but I’m 100 percent sure it will be published and final and effective before January 20,” Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Kevin Wolf said during the meeting. Wolf told attending industry representatives to contact BIS regarding any desired control changes they would like to see reflected in the rule.
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BIS plans to release a notice of inquiry (NOI) for industry input on considered tweaks to objective technical parameters in some CCL entries, most likely in January but maybe this month, Wolf said. After the NOI is released, “Let us know what your thoughts are,” Wolf said. “Will this have an impact, good or bad, on items in normal commercial use? Does it have any impact on items in normal commercial use now or in the near future? And otherwise, does this accomplish the broader policy objectives of the [export control] reform effort? If so, then great. Then I suspect the next administration would do what we’ve done in the past, which was, we would then roll those ideas into a proposed rule and give everybody a second bite at the apple to make sure, and then go through that process of reviewing the comments, and then lead on to a final rule.”
BIS still hasn’t “received any instruction” to implement export control reform (ECR), shifting certain items from USML Categories I (firearms, close assault weapons, and combat shotguns), II (guns and armament) and III (ammunition/ordnance) to the CCL, Wolf said. He advised RPTAC members to start reviewing ECR-related revisions to the CCL and identify entries that could accomplish intended objectives with fewer words, and to submit actionable suggestions to the Trump administration.