In September 2010, the International Trade Administration’s Export.gov created a new online tool to help small businesses and others evaluate their export readiness through a self-assessment process. Depending on the results of the self-assessment, the site then directs firms to additional government resources to help meet their needs. These include training and counseling, government market research and trade events, creating an export business plan, financing, etc. The online tool is part of President Obama’s National Export Initiative to double U.S. exports over the next five years.

The Bureau of Industry and Security has issued a proposed rule to require on-line registration for obtaining and maintaining SNAP-R accounts to submit export license applications and similar documents electronically.

The Bureau of Industry and Security announces that the Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee (RPTAC) will hold a partially open meeting on December 8, 2010. The agenda for the public session includes an export enforcement update, a regulations update, and an Automated Export System (AES) update.

The Bureau of Industry and Security has issued an order temporarily denying certain export privileges for a period of 180 days from November 15, 2010 against Anvik Technologies Sdn. Bhd. aka Anvik Technologies and its owner and operator, Babak Jafarpour aka Bob Jefferson, for exporting items subject to the Export Administration Regulaitons via transshipment through third countries, including Malaysia and Hong Kong, without obtaining the required authorization.

Export.gov has announced a series of trade missions that are scheduled for the remainder of 2010 through April 2011.

The International Trade Administration announces that the President’s Export Council will hold a meeting on December 9, 2010 to discuss topics related to the National Export Initiative, and to provide advice regarding how to promote U.S. exports, jobs, and growth. The meeting will also be broadcast via live webcast.

Tthe Directorate of Defense Trade Controls announces that D-Trade will undergo essential system upgrades for D-Trade2 v2.3.3 implementation on November 18, 2010 from 5:00-9:00 p.m. During this time the D-Trade system will be unavailable to accept submissions. All other applications (EFS, ELLIE and MARY) will remain online.

The State Department has forwarded 15 notifications of proposed export licenses to the Congress pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act, which include certifications of proposed licenses, manufacturing license agreements, and technical assistance agreements for the export of defense articles.

The Census Bureau has issued an Automated Export System broadcast to notify AES Trade Partners of a mandatory change for the migration of CBP’s AES Virtual Private Network (VPN) Endpoints to the new DHS Data Center VPN Gateways. The change must be implemented or scheduled (as applicable) by December 15, 2010.

On November 12, 2010, the State Department submitted a proposed rule to amend the International Traffic in Arms regulations: Part 121, for U.S. Munitions List Category VII.