BIS Aiming to Ease Syria Export Controls in 'Fairly Near Future,' BIS Official Says
The Bureau of Industry and Security is planning to soon loosen some export controls on Syria, a move that would align with the Treasury Department’s lifting of certain financial sanctions against the country last month (see 2505230073).
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BIS is drafting a rule to remove certain Syria controls and hopes to publish it in the "fairly near future,” Tim Mooney, acting director of the BIS Regulatory Policy Division, said during a June 10 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. He said the rule is still being “developed” and needs to be cleared by other U.S. agencies, and “there's a lot of interagency discussions going on that.”
“It takes a little time to work through the process,” Mooney said. But BIS should release it “in the near future, whether that’s weeks or a month or so. But I think something fairly soon.”
He also said the Syria charges may be rolled out in multiple rules. It's possible that "not necessarily everything happens at the same time in the same rule,” Mooney said. “So you may see maybe even a series of rules that make different changes as we go along.”
Although the Trump administration has announced financial sanctions relief for Syria, exporters are still subject to strict license requirements for many items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, except for food and medicine classified as EAR99 (see 2505280012).