The Commerce Department will officially amend the Export Administration Regulations June 18 to allow U.S. companies to more easily participate in standards setting bodies in which Huawei is a member, the agency said in a notice. Commerce, which previously announced details of the measure (see 2006150062), is seeking comments on the revision, which will allow the release of certain technology to Huawei and its affiliates on the Entity List if that release is in the context of a standards-setting body and not for commercial purposes. Comments are due Aug. 17.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security announced a new set of export controls on certain cultivation chambers and chemicals (see 2005150048). The controls, agreed to by the Australia Group during a February meeting, restrict the sales of certain “rigid-walled, single-use” cultivation chambers and precursor chemicals, along with the “Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus,” or MERS. The final rule, which takes effect June 17, falls under BIS's effort to restrict sales of emerging technologies (see 2005190052), as mandated by the 2018 Export Control Reform Act, the agency said.
The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls expects to increase its end-user checks on sensitive defense exports after the transfer of gun export controls from the State Department to the Commerce Department was finalized earlier this year, the agency said. The transfer -- which placed Commerce in charge of export controls for firearms, ammunition and other defense items -- will free up DDTC to conduct more thorough post-shipment checks as part of its Blue Lantern process, the agency’s end-use monitoring program.
The Commerce Department’s increased restrictions on shipments to military end-users is causing widespread confusion and could cripple exporters struggling to survive during the global COVID-19 pandemic (see 2005010037), industry groups said. The Bureau of Industry and Security's April 28 final rule (see 2004270027), set to take effect June 29, is too complex and was released with “poor” timing and without industry input, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security is working with the Department of Defense to survey the industrial base involved with Air Force systems supply chains, BIS said in a June 8 notice. The survey data will provide both agencies with a clearer picture of the “structure and interdependencies” of companies that supply Air Force products, including “maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) related activities,” the notice said. The survey aims to help DoD’s Air Force Sustainment Center better “identify and resolve supply chain deficiencies, foreign dependencies, and other challenges in the industrial base.” The survey will also record “difficulties” faced by suppliers throughout the supply chain, including impacts from the coronavirus.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 1-5 in case you missed them.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security will officially add 33 companies and government agencies to the Entity List on June 5 for their roles in aiding proliferation activities and human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang province, BIS said in two Federal Register notices. The notices formalize the additions, which were announced in May (see 2005220058).
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security corrected the formatting for an April final rule that expanded licensing requirements for certain military-related exports to China, Russia and Venezuela, according to a notice. The corrected format “publishes the full text of each revised Export Control Classification Number on the Commerce Control List,” the notice said. BIS issued the correction because the agency “felt it was easier for compliance purposes,” said Hillary Hess, BIS’s regulatory policy director, speaking during a June 2 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “It does not change the substance of the rule at all.”
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 26-29 in case you missed them.
Commerce Department officials will hold discussions with the Office of the General Counsel June 3 to try to make progress on the agency’s long-awaited proposed rules on routed export transactions, said Kiesha Downs, chief of the Census Bureau Foreign Trade Division’s regulations branch. The discussions will include OGC’s Office of the Chief Counsel and officials from both Census and the Bureau of Industry and Security as the two agencies try to build on a meeting in March (see 2003100046).