The U.S. decision to sell Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles to Australia risks undermining export restrictions deployed by the multilateral Missile Technology Control Regime, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said Oct. 1. The MTCR requires all members to exercise a strong presumption of denial for exports of especially lethal missile systems, including the Tomahawk missiles, the report said, and the U.S. sale “runs the risk of further undermining” the denial policy. The institute said the decision will likely be a “source of tension and disagreement” among members during the MTCR’s meeting in Russia this week. The White House didn't comment. The State Department, which regulates the exports of a range of lethal weapons, declined to comment because the sale hasn't yet been formally notified to Congress.

The U.S. partnered with Singapore and Japan to host a virtual trade industry outreach seminar this week, where they discussed emerging technology exports, sanctions compliance and more, the Bureau of Industry and Security said. The ninth annual Joint Industry Outreach seminar, which featured officials from the Netherlands, Germany, South Korea, Philippines and Malaysia, included discussions on the intersection of export controls and sanctions, controlling emerging technologies, cyber-threats to export-controlled data, intangible transfers of technology and intellectual property, export controls for academic and research environments, and tools for internal compliance planning, BIS said. The agency said the seminar, held Sept. 28-29, allowed governments and industry to share best practices and review recent export control updates.

The Bureau of Industry and Security completed its review of a final rule that would control exports of certain types of deuterium under the Export Administration Regulations. The rule, received by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs June 16 (see 2106240004) and completed Sept. 23, would control deuterium exports “intended for use other than in a nuclear reactor,” BIS said. The agency said the rule will transfer the responsibility for controlling those exports from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to BIS.

Several U.S. national security agencies are split on whether to add Chinese smartphone maker Honor Device to the Entity List, The Washington Post reported Sept. 19. While the Commerce and State departments said Honor shouldn't be added to the list, the Defense and Energy departments last week supported adding the company. Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr said Honor should be blacklisted because Huawei, which formerly owned Honor as its smartphone company, is using it to evade U.S. export restrictions. “This isn't a close call,” Carr said in a Sept. 20 tweet. The issue has been “appealed to the political-appointee level” at each of the agencies, the report said, and could be escalated to the Cabinet level and eventually President Joe Biden in the case of a deadlock.

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls will soon publish an amendment to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to reflect new U.S. sanctions against Ethiopia (see 2109170036), the agency said Sept. 17. DDTC said it’s implementing a policy of denial for exports of defense articles and defense services “to or for the armed forces, police, intelligence, or other internal security forces” of Ethiopia and Eritrea, and will soon make the change official in the ITAR.

The Bureau of Industry and Security sent an interim final rule for interagency review that could affect certain information security export controls for cybersecurity items. The rule, received by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Sept. 17, builds upon a proposed rule published by BIS in 2015 that was intended to gather feedback on new Wassenaar Arrangement controls on some cybersecurity items. At the time, BIS said public comments “revealed serious scope and implementation issues regarding these controls,” so the agency returned to Wassenaar to renegotiate the controls. The interim final rule, if approved and published, could outline the “progress” BIS made during the renegotiation and make changes to the Commerce Control List.

The Bureau of Industry and Security issued Sept. 17 guidance on export control information related to radiation hardened integrated circuits. The guidance includes a frequently asked question about whether certain integrated circuits are considered to be “rated as radiation hardened” under Export Control Classification Number 3A001.a.1 or meet or exceed the characteristics in ECCN 9A515.d or e. Another FAQ addresses how the classification of “standard fabrication process technologies” are impacted if they don’t meet certain required standards in the Export Administration Regulations. The final FAQ addresses whether the U.S. government, in developing plans to “prevent the release of controlled technology during the lifecycle of an acquisition,” can rely on “industry technology control plans for programs using onshore foundries for integrated circuit production.”

The Bureau of Industry and Security completed an interagency review Sept. 10 of a rule that would make changes to its Strategic Trade Authorization license exception. The proposed rule, sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs June 13 (see 2107150004), would clarify the availability and expand restrictions on the availability of license exception STA under the Export Administration Regulations. BIS withdrew a similar rule from consideration last year to allow for more informal talks within the interagency (see 2011130008).

The U.S. government needs more resources, including better expertise, to identify emerging and foundational technologies under the Export Control Reform Act of 2018, said Kevin Wolf, the Commerce Department’s former assistant secretary for export administration. Speaking before a U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission hearing last week, Wolf said export controls are more “complex” now than they have been in decades, mostly due to Chinese technology acquisition efforts and the continued development of advanced technologies.

The European Commission will hold its annual export control forum Dec. 8, the commission announced Sept. 2, providing European Union member states, industry, academia and others an opportunity to discuss export control policies. The forum will include a discussion on the EU’s new dual-use control regulations (see 2105100013) and other export control developments globally.