The Commerce Department published its fall 2020 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security, including new mentions of rules to amend Hong Kong under the Export Administration Regulations, releases of controlled technologies to standards setting bodies and a range of new technology controls.
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 Bureau of Industry and Security corrected its September revision of the Export Administration Regulations, which implemented export control changes made by the 2018 Wassenaar Arrangement plenary (see 2009100027). The corrections, issued in a notice released Dec. 3, address errors that were “unintentionally introduced” in Export Control Classification Numbers 3A001, 3A002, 3A991, 5A002, 7A005 and 9E003, BIS said. It said the corrections do not change BIS policy or affect licensing requirements.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs began 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 would amend the scope of Export Control Classification Number 1C991, which covers vaccines, immunotoxins, medical products, and diagnostic and food testing kits. OIRA received the rule Nov. 16.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is considering export controls on certain “software” that can be exploited to develop biological weapons (see 2010010003) and requested feedback from industry about the impact of the controls, the agency said in a Nov. 5 notice. The controls would target software “for the operation of nucleic acid assemblers and synthesizers” that can design and build “functional genetic elements from digital sequence data.” The controls would fall under BIS’s emerging technology effort, and comments are due Dec. 21.
The Census Bureau issued a guidance on Oct. 8 on the mandatory filing requirements outlined in the Bureau of Industry and Security's April rule on military-related exports (see 2006250026). Census said it received a “number” of questions on the rule, which increased due diligence requirements for certain exports to China, Russia and Venezuela and requires certain Electronic Export Information filings for some exports captured under the rule (see 2004270027).
The Bureau of Industry and Security imposed a license requirement on certain exports of water cannon systems and revised its licensing policy for crime control (CC) items. The moves will place more oversight on exports that have potential to be used for human rights violations, BIS said in final rules released Oct. 5. Both rules take effect Oct. 6.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Oct. 2 announced new export controls (see 2008100013 and 2005190052) on six emerging technologies. The controls, which were agreed to by Wassenaar Arrangement members during its 2019 plenary, include:
The Bureau of Industry and Security’s proposal to reduce the number of countries eligible for license exception Additional Permissive Reexports (APR) (see 2004270025) could damage U.S. competitiveness and lead to overly broad export restrictions, trade groups and industry said in comments released this month. If BIS follows through on the change, commenters suggested that it first limit the scope of the rule, which could potentially restrict more than 20 countries from receiving certain U.S. reexports that are controlled for national security reasons.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added, revised and made technical changes to export controls in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement changes under the 2018 Wassenaar Arrangement (see 2007220015). Per a final rule released Sept. 10, BIS revised 28 Export Control Classification Numbers, altered license exceptions for four ECCNs, made technical changes to eight ECCNs and created one new ECCN for certain masks and reticles used for sensors. The rule follows a May 2019 rule that added controls to five technologies under the 2018 Wassenaar (see 1905220051).