The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls should make several additional changes and clarifications to its first rule that reorganized its defense trade regulations, two commenters told the agency. The agency should include clearer definitions for end-use and end-user, a trade group said. An aerospace company urged DDTC to clarify sections of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations that could have “unintended consequences.”
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls will launch an updated licensing application this summer in the Defense Export Control and Compliance System, the agency said in a notice last week. DDTC is updating the application to work in a new software platform, “providing greater flexibility, security and administration of the application to the support team,” the agency said. The update is a “significant step in DDTC’s effort to continuously modernize the DECCS application suite.” DDTC will hold a webinar June 9 to discuss the update, including a demonstration of the application, an overview of how it affects DDTC partners and a timeline for its release.
The University of Pennsylvania posted presentation materials from the first and second day of its annual University Export Control Conference last week. The materials include agency update presentations from the Bureau of Industry and Security, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, the Office of Science and Technology Policy and other government agencies. Among the presentation materials are ones on foreign influence investigations, implementing a research security program and how to construct an export control program in a university setting.
Peter Quinter, former customs and international trade attorney at GrayRobinson, joined Gunster as the leader of its Customs and International Trade Law Group, Quinter said in a post on his LinkedIn account. Quinter advises on issues involving investigations by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Before entering private practice, Quinter served as counsel at the Southeast Regional Headquarters of the U.S. Customs Service.
Israel’s Defense Ministry is granting fewer export licenses to the country’s spyware companies amid mounting pressure from the U.S., according to an April 25 report from Globes, an Israeli business news site. The report said Israeli company Nemesis was forced to shut down last month after the country’s Defense Export Control Agency refused to grant it export licenses, and other industry executives have complained about an “abrupt change in policy” toward companies exporting spyware. Other companies -- including NSO Group, Cognyte, QuaDream and Wintego -- are on a “short list” of businesses that have struggled in recent months from a “lack of approvals for new deals and cancellation of export permits that have expired,” the report said.
The State Department is “finalizing” discussions with several trading partners on its new open general license concept for certain defense exports, senior agency official Mike Miller. The concept, which could begin as a pilot program, would allow U.S. exports to certain U.S. trading partners without having to apply for a specific license (see 2109290056).
The State Department recently approved up to an additional $800 million in emergency military assistance to Ukraine, it said in a notice released April 25. The notice directs the drawdown of defense articles, services and military training from the Defense Department. The State Department said the aid could not have been met under the authority of the Arms Export Control Act or “any other provision of law.”
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls was able to close significantly more end-use checks in 2021 compared with 2020 despite some continued travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In its annual Blue Lantern report released this month -- which details the agency’s end-use monitoring efforts on controlled defense articles and services -- DDTC said it closed checks on 256 export licenses or applications during fiscal year 2021, an increase of more than 38% from FY 2020.
The State Department recently approved up to $100 million in emergency military assistance to Ukraine, it said in a notice. The notice directs the drawdown of defense articles, services and military training from the Defense Department. The State Department said the aid could not have been met under the authority of the Arms Export Control Act or “any other provision of law.”
The State Department this week published two determinations under the Foreign Assistance Act to provide military equipment and services for Ukraine and the Philippines. The Sept. 2, 2021, determination for Ukraine authorized the drawdown of up to $60 million in defense articles and services "to provide assistance to Ukraine," and the Nov. 9, 2020, determination authorized $18 million in defense items for the Philippines "to support counterterrorism operations." The State Department said neither of the military assistance determinations could have been met under the Arms Export Control Act.