The State Department and the Bureau of Industry and Security are beginning concurrent reviews of several recently updated categories of export controls covering explosives and energetic materials, protective equipment and military electronics. State’s inquiry is focused on whether revised U.S. Munitions List categories V, X and XI remain clear and up to date, it said in a notice. The BIS inquiry focuses on the clarity and usability of new 600-series export controls created for dual-use items moved over from those three categories to the Commerce Control List, BIS said. Comments to both agencies are due April 13.
The Census Bureau listed resources exporters can use to access Schedule B numbers, including the latest version of the Schedule B book for 2018, in a Feb. 5 post on its Global Reach blog. New Schedule B numbers added this year became effective Jan. 1, and include statistical breakouts for crude corn and vinegar, according to a list of new and obsolete Schedule B numbers.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is adding 21 entities under 23 entries to the Entity List, under the destinations of Bulgaria, China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates, the agency said. BIS is also removing three entities, two under the destination UAE and one under the destination Taiwan. The agency is also updating an entry under Pakistan and an entry under China, BIS said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a correction to a recent final rule that was itself meant to clarify and fix errors in the Export Administration Regulations (see 1712260002). The corrections to the Dec. 27 final rule affect Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) 0D606, 0E606 and 8A609.
U.S. soybean exports to China must include a declaration on the phytosanitary certificate that says, “This consignment exceeds 1 percent foreign material,” starting Jan. 1, 2018, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said Dec. 27. Chinese officials in September notified the agency of “foreign material” in U.S. soybeans exceeding Chinese standards as well as weed seeds “of quarantine concern,” APHIS said. Chinese officials “have assured” the U.S. that the declaration will clear the way for all U.S. soybean exports to China, including those with over 1 percent foreign material, without interruption until the U.S. can “fully implement” a series of “science-based measures from farm to export terminal, called a systems approach,” during the 2018 crop year. The “systems approach” will aim to reduce the volume of foreign material and weed seeds in soybean exports to China, APHIS said. “We are confident that this agreement will allow U.S. soybean farmers and exporters to continue to service the important Chinese market without interruption,” U.S. Soybean Export Council CEO Jim Sutter said in a statement.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is again renewing an export denial order for Mahan Airways, Pejman Mahmood Kosarayanifard, Mahmoud Amini, Kerman Aviation, Sirjanco Trading, Ali Eslamian, Mahan Air General Trading, Skyco (UK), Equipco (UK), Mehdi Bahrami, Al Naser Airlines, Bahar Safwa General Trading, Ali Abdullah Alhay, Sky Blue Bird Group and Issam Shammout. BIS is also adding "Al Naser Wings Airline" as an alias of Al Naser Airlines. The order went into effect Dec. 20, and will remain in effect through June 18, BIS said. BIS last extended these export denials in June (see 1706300013).
The Bureau of Industry and Security is issuing a final rule effective Dec. 27 to correct typographical errors in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), amend several export control classification numbers to enhance consistency with other ECCNs, and to provide accurate references, BIS said. The amendments don’t change the EAR license requirements for the use of license exceptions, BIS said.
New electronic reporting requirements for the Environmental Protection Agency for waste exports will take effect on Dec. 31, CBP said in a CSMS message. Exporters of Resource Conservation and Recovery Act "manifested hazardous waste for recycling or disposal, spent lead-acid batteries (SLABs) being shipped for recovery of lead, and universal waste (UW) being shipped for recycling or disposal must comply with filing EPA-specific information as part of their Electronic Export Information (EEI) filing in the Automated Export System (AES) per EPA regulations," CBP said. Exporters of cathode ray tubes for recycling must also submit information to the EPA in AES starting Dec. 31. CBP also linked to an EPA presentation on the requirements.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has “frozen” the granting of licenses for aircraft exports to Iran for about the last year, and likely won’t issue such licenses for the foreseeable future, Boeing global trade controls chief counsel Frederick Shaheen said during a Practising Law Institute export controls conference Dec. 15. Boeing has had licenses pending approval with OFAC as it has publicly announced agreements with Iranian airlines to export aircraft, Shaheen said, including deals with Iran Aseman Airlines (see 1704100063) and Iran Air (see 1612190043). “It’s a different time politically; everything is frozen,” he said. “Until there’s some definition on what this [Trump] administration wants to do going forward, I don’t think anybody’s going to be getting licenses.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security could take regulatory action as soon as May toward implementing language the U.S. agreed to during the December 2015 Wassenaar Plenary meeting that hasn’t yet been formalized through rulemaking, BIS Office of National Security and Technology Transfer Controls Director Eileen Albanese said Dec. 14 during a Practising Law Institute export controls conference. After getting significant negative industry feedback about implementing the language, the U.S. government might hold off on any additional action until the 2018 Wassenaar meeting, Steptoe and Johnson attorney Meredith Rathbone said during the conference. A notice of inquiry seeking comments on how to implement the language is one of many other options at BIS’s disposal, Albanese said. “Do we implement and use our national discretion to implement as we think is the right way to do it, or do we really do a gung-ho push to try to get Wassenaar to change the language for all countries?”