BIS Authorizes Certain Exports, Activities With Belarusian Airline
The Bureau of Industry and Security has removed certain export restrictions from aircraft belonging to Belavia, the state-owned flagship carrier of Belarus, as part of sanctions relief that the Trump administration has offered to the country in recent days.
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BIS sent a letter earlier this month to Belavia that authorizes flights of certain previously restricted aircraft between Belarus and most other destinations. The letter specifically removed eight Belavia aircraft from the BIS list of commercial and private planes that it said are likely to have violated the Export Administration Regulations. It also authorizes certain services involving Belavia aircraft, including the maintenance, repair, overhaul and refurbishing of those planes.
This authorization applies to aircraft that are subject to the EAR, controlled under Export Control Classification No. 9A991.b and owned, leased and/or controlled by Belavia, “including but not limited to” the eight listed planes.
The changes took effect Sept. 12. The agency said it will review all license applications involving Belavia aircraft on a case-by-case basis “to determine whether the items are for the maintenance and use of Belavia’s commercial passenger fleet, and to guard against the risk of diversion to other unsupported end-uses or end-users.”
The announcement was meant to complement a new general license issued earlier this month by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which authorizes certain transactions with the airline (see 2509110029). The State Department said last week that the U.S. provided the waiver because Belarusian authorities recently released dozens of political prisoners, "demonstrating their desire to re-engage with the West” (see 2509120005).
The State Department also said at the time that the Commerce Department planned to authorize certain exports involving Belavia. Easing the export restrictions represents a shift from 2022, when BIS first issued a temporary denial order against Belavia, suspending its export privileges after the agency said the carrier violated U.S. export controls against Belarus (see 2206160015 and 2312060022).
In its letter this month to Belavia, BIS stressed that its authorization doesn’t allow flights to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria or to the Crimea, Donetsk or Luhansk regions of Ukraine. “Such flights may separately be eligible for authorization” under an EAR license exception, it said.
The authorization also doesn’t allow Belavia aircraft to be used to transport EAR-controlled items to any destination -- unless authorized by a BIS license or license exception -- particularly items “in support of Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
In addition, BIS said any exports from the U.S. of equipment, supplies and materials controlled only for anti-terrorism reasons or designated as EAR99 -- and authorized under the letter -- should be declared in Electronic Export Information filed in the Automated Export System. Those items should be declared “under the appropriate License Type Code to the country of destination (e.g., NLR/C33), even if it is known at the time of export that the items are going to or for the use of Covered Aircraft and would thus require a BIS authorization under § 744.7 of the EAR.”