The Bureau of Industry and Security is amending the Export Administration Regulations to impose tougher restrictions on non-commercial aircraft and passenger vessels authorized to fly or sail to Cuba on temporary sojourn. The final rule amends license exception Aircraft, Vessels and Spacecraft to remove the eligibility for exports to Cuba of such aircraft and vessels. It also sets a general policy of denial for such exports except for in cases of a foreign policy or national security interest. “Consequently, private and corporate aircraft, cruise ships, sailboats, fishing boats, and other similar aircraft and vessels generally will be prohibited from going to Cuba,” BIS said. License exception AVS will still be available for commercial aircraft and cargo vessels exported to Cuba on temporary sojourn. The final rule takes effect June 5.
The Commerce Department plans to issue an advance notice of proposed rulemaking for export controls of foundational technologies in the coming weeks, Commerce officials said. The notice will be published “quite soon” and in “weeks, not months,” said Rich Ashooh, Commerce's assistant secretary for export administration, speaking at a June 4 Bureau of Industry and Security Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. Hillary Hess, director of Commerce’s regulatory policy division, was more reserved in her prediction, saying she is unsure exactly when the notice will be released but assuring the committee it is the next export-related notice that BIS plans to publish. “It is in the process now,” Hess said at the meeting. “We’re trying to prepare it.”
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security's Office of Antiboycott Compliance settled with a U.S.-based company for $54,000 after the company committed 27 violations of the Export Administration Regulations, enforcement records show. An order signed by Commerce May 20 says Zurn Industries, LLC completed transactions from the U.S. to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates related to actions that “would have the effect of furthering or supporting a restrictive trade practice or unsanctioned foreign boycott.” Zurn did not report “receipts of these requests” to Commerce, as required by law, the records said. Zurn must pay the fine to Commerce within 30 days of the order or face additional charges, and may have export licenses or privileges revoked. If Zurn does not pay the fine, its “export privileges” will be denied for one year.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 20-24 in case they were missed.
The Department of State published its spring 2019 regulatory agenda. The agenda includes a new mention of a proposal to amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to include definitions for "activities that are not exports, re-exports, or retransfers." The activities include "launching items into space; providing technical data to U.S. persons within the United States or within a single country abroad; and moving a defense article between the states, possessions, and territories of" the U.S., State said. The proposal also "removes from ITAR licensing requirements the electronic transmission and storage of unclassified technical data via foreign communications infrastructure when the data is secured sufficiently to prevent access by foreign persons." Under the proposal, State would also amend the ITAR to create definitions for “access information” and revise definitions of release to include “the improper provision of access information to foreign persons.” State is aiming to issue the proposal in September, it said.
The agenda also includes a rule that would revise Categories I, II and III of the U.S. Munitions List to include items that gives the U.S. a “critical military or intelligence advantage or otherwise warrant control at the highest level.” The rule states that exports of “commercially available firearms and ammunition,” removed from Category I and III, will continue to be controlled under the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Commerce Control List. State said the transition from the Munitions List to the CCL “will result in a net reduction in regulatory burden for the affected manufacturing and export community.” State aims to issue the rule in May 2019, it said.
The Department of Commerce published its spring 2019 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security. The agenda continues to mention an upcoming a long-awaited proposed rulemaking involving parties’ responsibilities under the Export Administration Regulations in a routed export transaction, saying the proposal will be published in May 2019. Sharron Cook, a senior policy export analyst for BIS, said in April the rule change will help solve some of the bigger frustrations with the current regulations faced by export forwarders (see 1904170064). BIS is aiming to issue the proposal in May, it said.
Foreign manufacturers need to be aware that their products may be covered by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security's listing of telecommunications equipment manufacturer Huawei on the Entity List, even if they aren't manufactured in the U.S., according to an alert by law firm Sheppard Mullin. U.S. export controls on Huawei and its affiliates may apply to a substantial scope of foreign goods that contain more than 25 percent U.S.-origin content. Under the BIS de minimis rule, products are subject to the Export Administration Regulations -- and consequently new license requirements for Huawei -- if more than one-fourth of the product is composed of U.S.-origin content that is also controlled under the EAR, except for “EAR99 items” or products that do not require a license, the alert said.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is adding five new national security-related technologies to the Export Administration Regulations’ Commerce Control List, according to a notice in the Federal Register. The additions stem from changes made to the Wassenaar Arrangement’s List of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies agreed to during the 2018 Plenary meeting, the notice said. The changes add “recently developed or developing technologies” that are “essential” to U.S. national security: “discrete microwave transistors,” “continuity of operation software,” “post-quantum cryptography,” “underwater transducers designed to operate as hydrophones” and “air-launch platforms.” The notice is scheduled for publication and the changes take effect on May 23.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to remove Venezuela from Country Group B and add it to Country Groups D:1-4, which “lists countries of national security concern” and adds new licensing requirements while restricting the use of certain license exceptions for exports. The changes take effect May 24.
The State Department designated 22 people, entities or their subsidiaries under the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act for trading goods that may be used for weapons of mass destruction or ballistic missile systems, the department said in a Federal Register notice to be published May 22. The additions include people and entities associated or located in China, Iran, Russia and Syria.