The Bureau of Industry and Security and the State Department are issuing parallel final rules to clarify the types of military aircraft controlled on the Commerce Control List (CCL) and to delineate the goods warranting control on the U.S. Munitions List (USML), respectively, BIS (here) and State (here) said. More specifically, BIS’s rule elucidates and expands the list of items that are subject only to the anti-terrorism reason for control, and State’s revises USML Categories VIII (Aircraft and Related Articles) and XIX (Gas Turbine Engines and Associated Equipment). The final rules come after corresponding Feb. 9 proposed rules, and will take effect Dec. 31.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is denying for 10 years the export privileges of six convicted violators of the Arms Export Control Act, BIS said in separate announcements. The perpetrators did not have licenses to authorize the exports. The convictions were all related to illicit gun exports or attempts to export guns, including the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas convictions of Jorge Santana (here) on May 5, 2014, Julio Cesar Solis-Castilleja (here) on June 30, 2014, Luis Alberto Najera-Citalan (here) on June 9, 2015, and Daniel Miranda-Mendoza (here) on Aug. 25, 2015; as well as the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina's conviction of Hassan Jamil Salame (here) on Nov. 3, 2015, and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida's conviction of Javier Nenos Rea (here) on Jan. 13, 2015.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is again extending a temporary general license that maintains normal licensing requirements for exports, re-exports and in-country transfers to Zhongxing Telecommunications Equipment (ZTE) Corporation and ZTE Kangxun, until Feb. 27, BIS said (here). The temporary license was previously set to expire Nov. 28, after BIS twice extended the original deadline of June 30 (see 1606270013 and 1608180009). After announcing sanctions against ZTE, ZTE Kangxun and two affiliated firms on March 8, alleging the companies conspired to re-export controlled defense-related items to Iran contrary to U.S. law (see 1603070001), BIS on March 24 created the temporary license to restore the pre-sanction licensing and other policies of the Export Administration Regulations regarding exports, re-exports and transfers to the companies.
The Commerce and State departments, and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) are amending export control procedures to mandate consultations with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) before unclassified nuclear technology and assistance is transferred to foreign countries (here). Before the Energy Secretary authorizes certain transfers of civil nuclear technology and assistance, the Energy Department/NNSA must consult with Commerce, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the Defense Department, and obtain the concurrence of State. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 requires that the ODNI also be consulted regarding such approvals, according to the executive branch announcement.
A Nebraska beef processor exported beef to Israel, representing the first time that U.S. beef has gone there since a ban on U.S. beef imports in place since 2003 was lifted (see 1602090036), Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer’s office announced (here). “I was proud to work closely with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, USDA, and our ambassador in Israel to broker this historic agreement,” she said in a Nov. 3 statement. “Nebraskans feed the world and re-opening this market increases opportunities for our state’s ag producers, communities, and economy.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to reflect discontinued arms embargoes against the Ivory Coast and Liberia, and implement other changes with regard to other arms and materiel sales to Sri Lanka and Vietnam, BIS said in a final rule (here). The rule also updates the EAR to recognize India as a member of the intergovernmental Missile Technology Control Regime. Specifically, BIS removed the Ivory Coast and Liberia from its Country Group D:5, “U.S. Arms Embargoed Countries,” following the termination of arms embargoes directed by United Nations Security Council resolutions earlier this year, BIS said. The final rule also erases Vietnam from Country Group D:5, after Secretary of State John Kerry in May terminated his department’s policy of banning the sale or transfer of lethal weapons to the country (see 1605270056). The final rule also removed Sri Lanka from Country Group D:5, after defense licensing restrictions laid out in the fiscal year 2015 Consolidated Appropriations Act and previous spending bills were not carried forward in fiscal 2016 appropriations legislation. The State Department Directorate of Defense Trade Controls in May said it will review license applications to export or temporarily import defense articles to and from Sri Lanka under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations on a case-by-case basis (see 1605040057).
A Hillary Clinton presidency wouldn’t bring discernible changes to U.S. export controls and sanctions policy, but impacts from a Trump administration are less clear, according to an analysis posted on Wiley Rein's American Trade and Manufacturing Blog (here). “In any event, much depends upon international developments which, as we saw in connection with Ukraine, can change the international sanctions situation quite quickly,” said Scott Nance, a lawyer at the firm. Clinton would likely narrowly observe the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, after she helped negotiate its pre-approval precursor, the Joint Plan of Action, Nance said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is issuing a final rule that would amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to allow electronic reporting of requests they receive to support an unsanctioned foreign boycott, which the EAR require (here). BIS currently accepts reporting only through mail. Reports to the Commerce Department are required for requests to take any “action which has the effect of furthering or supporting a restrictive trade practice or boycott fostered or imposed by a foreign country against a country friendly to the United States or against any United States person.” Electronic and mail filings must accompany two copies (PDF for electronic) of the relevant pages of any documents where the request appears, and electronic reports may be submitted only on the single transaction form, BIS said. The EAR amendments are merely administrative changes and don't require a full proposed rulemaking process, the agency said. BIS also waived the 30-day suspension of activation normally applied to final rules, saying the delay would run counter to public interest. Anyone filing a report on behalf of another person must indicate it and identify that person, the agency said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is denying until April 24, 2025, the export privileges of a Georgia man who was convicted of negotiating the unauthorized sales, delivery or servicing transactions of three F-16 jet temperature transmitters and a saddle part for the J-69 engine on 737 military aircraft trainers, BIS said (here). The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida convicted Russell Marshall in 2015, sentencing him to 41 months in prison, two years of supervised release, a $200 fine and exile from the U.S. upon completion of the jail term. In addition to the export denial, BIS revoked all licenses in which Marshall had an interest at his time of conviction. Marshall may appeal BIS’s order by Nov. 14, the agency said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a final rule Sept. 20 aligning the Commerce Control List (CCL) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR) with changes made to the Wassenaar Arrangement’s List of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies during the December 2015 Wassenaar Plenary Meeting (here). Goods in CCL Category 1 (special materials and related equipment, chemicals, “microorganisms” and “toxins”) sustained 12 revisions, more than any other category, altogether composing 58 total changes, while Category 5-Part 1 (“Telecommunications”) added Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) 5A003 (“Systems,” “equipment,” and “components,” for non-cryptographic “information security”), and 5A004 (“Systems,” “equipment,” and “components” for defeating, weakening, or bypassing “information security”).