The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls Dec. 14 issued guidance on the recently imposed U.S. sanctions against Turkey, detailing how it will implement various export restrictions. DDTC said it will not approve “any specific license or authorization” for exports or reexports for transactions where Turkey’s Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) is a party, including for “defense articles,” technical data or defense services. While the restrictions do not apply to “temporary import authorizations” or current and valid reexport authorizations, they do apply to all new export and reexport authorizations, DDTC said. That includes “amendments to previously approved licenses or agreements and licenses in furtherance of previously approved agreements.”
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Dec. 8 completed a review of a final rule from the Bureau of Industry and Security that would clarify the scope of certain export restrictions to reflect decisions made at the June 2019 Australia Group plenary meeting. The rule, received by OIRA Nov. 16, would amend the scope of Export Control Classification Number 1C991, covering vaccines, immunotoxins, medical products, and diagnostic and food testing kits.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs began reviewing a proposed State Department rule concerning the definition of a regular employee in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. OIRA received the rule Dec. 3. The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls didn’t comment.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs began reviewing a final Bureau of Industry and Security rule concerning Sudan. The rule, received by OIRA Dec. 3, would revise the Export Administration Regulations to reflect the U.S. rescission of Sudan’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism (see 2011020012).
Doug Hassebrock, the Bureau of Industry and Security's top enforcement official responsible for national security issues, retired last month. Hassebrock served as the deputy assistant secretary for export enforcement and left in early November, BIS official Hillary Hess said during a Dec. 8 Commerce Department technical advisory committee meeting. Kevin Kurland, director of BIS’s Office of Export Analysis, is acting in Hassebrock’s role, Hess said. A BIS spokesperson didn’t comment.
Corey Stewart, a trade lawyer and supporter of President Donald Trump who lost a 2018 Senate race in Virginia, was named to a “newly created” senior position in the Commerce Department to oversee export regulations, Reuters said in a Nov. 16 report. Stewart will hold the post of principal deputy assistant secretary for export administration, Reuters said, which is above the post of Matthew Borman, the deputy assistant secretary for export administration. Stewart is being brought in to help “push through hardline policies on China” before the Joe Biden administration takes over, the report said. Stewart is expected to serve in the role until the end of the Trump administration on Jan. 20, 2021. The Commerce Department and its Bureau of Industry and Security did not immediately comment. The announcement came about four months after Rich Ashooh, former Commerce assistant secretary for export administration, resigned in July (see 2007020027).
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs completed a review Oct. 22 of a Bureau of Industry and Security final rule related to its “national security license application review policy” for China, Russia and Venezuela. OIRA received the rule Sept. 17 (see 2009180012).
New Zealand recently revised its catch-all export controls and issued guidance on the changes. The revisions, which took effect Oct. 9, include changes to restrictions on goods and technologies that are not controlled under New Zealand's export control regime but may have military or police uses, such as biological and chemical weapons or goods that may have “military applications.”
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls issued guidance Oct. 5 on the “see-through rule” -- a “colloquial phrase” that refers to the impact of controls under International Traffic in Arms Regulations. DDTC clarified the rule by stressing that ITAR controls and requirements do not “disappear simply because the defense article is integrated into another item.” If an ITAR-controlled component is integrated into a “larger system or end-item,” the component does “not lose its identity.” DDTC said “the ITAR ‘sees through’ the larger system or end-item and continues to regulate that defense article.”
The State Department announced procurement bans and export controls on 11 entities and one person for violating export restrictions imposed by multilateral control groups. The restrictions, said a notice released Oct. 2, apply to entities in China, Russia, Syria, Iraq, Iran, their subsidiaries and one person in China for illegally trading items restricted by multilateral control groups, including the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group. The order bans U.S. government procurement and government sales to any of the entities or people involving items on the U.S. Munitions List and controlled under the Arms Export Control Act. It also suspends export licenses for items controlled under the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 and the Export Administration Regulations. The order took effect Sept. 23 and will remain in place for two years. It applies to the following entities: