The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls released a recording of its Feb. 13 Defense Export Control and Compliance System webinar (see 2002070048), covering corporate administrators, user management, access groups, self service. The registration and licensing applications for DECCS launched Feb. 18 (see 2002190025).
Companies should ensure their data is fully encrypted with no access by third parties before using the new encryption carve-out in the upcoming amendments to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, according to a cybersecurity compliance expert and a trade lawyer. Although they lauded the ITAR for recognizing that some technology, such as encryption, can protect transfers of export controlled data, both said complying fully with the carve-out may be complicated. “There is a wrong way to do the end-to-end encryption, so you need to be very careful when applying it,” said Alex Major, a cybersecurity and trade lawyer with McCarter & English, speaking during a Feb. 27 webinar hosted by the Massachusetts Export Center.
A lawsuit filed by 20 states to block the transfer of export controls over firearms from the State Department to the Commerce Department is unfounded, the State Department said, adding that the states don’t understand the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and the Export Administration Regulations. The “plaintiffs are simply wrong,” the State Department said in a Feb. 24 court filing. “Several basic misunderstandings about how the respective regimes operate negate the Plaintiffs’ claims and any basis for preliminary injunctive relief.”
U.S. administration officials will meet with the European Union and Japan next month to lobby for increased scrutiny of transactions involving sensitive technologies, a top Treasury Department official said. The meetings will also feature discussions of recent U.S. reforms to foreign direct investment screening, said Thomas Feddo, Treasury’s assistant secretary of investment security, and come as the U.S. begins to implement those reforms as part of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (see 2001140060). Feddo spoke during a Feb. 26 event hosted by the Asia Society.
The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls issued guidance for its December interim final rule that will revise the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to provide definitions for activities that are not exports, re-exports, retransfers or temporary imports (see 1912230052). The Feb. 20 “summary handout” previews changes to the rule, details implications for industry and summarizes which activities will not be considered controlled events. The rule will significantly reduce regulatory and compliance burdens surrounding encrypted data (see 1912300024).
The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls on Feb. 19 issued two frequently asked questions that provide guidance on U.S. people exporting defense services abroad. The FAQs clarify guidance for exporters who “believe they may be currently furnishing defense services without authorization,” DDTC said.
The Justice Department settled its lawsuit with Chancery Staffing Solutions over claims of improper screening of non-U.S. citizens, the DOJ said in a Feb. 18 news release. The suit involved allegations that “the staffing company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) when, at a law firm client’s directive, it screened out work authorized non-U.S. citizens and U.S. citizens with dual citizenship from a document review project without a lawful basis.”
The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls officially launched the registration and licensing applications for its Defense Export Control and Compliance System (see 2002040060) on Feb. 18. Users can register at the DECCS industry portal enrollment page, which also includes an enrollment guide.
The State Department announced penalties on foreign entities for illegal transfers under the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act, the agency said in a notice. The entities transferred items subject to multilateral control lists -- such as the Wassenaar Arrangement -- that contribute to weapons proliferation or missile production. The entities mentioned in the notice include companies based in China, Iraq, Russia and Turkey and are barred from purchasing items controlled on the U.S. Munitions List and by the Arms Export Control Act. In addition, the State Department will suspend any current export licenses used by the companies; State will bar them from receiving new export licenses for any goods subject to the Export Administration Regulations; and government agencies are barred from entering into procurement contracts with them. The measures took effect Feb. 3.
Traders who use the “batch submission process” to send license information to the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls need to receive the latest version of the client software from OCR Services before the Defense Export Control and Compliance System is launched, the DDTC said Feb. 13. The updated client version contains “necessary revisions” for submitting in batch, the DDTC said. DECCS will launch Feb. 18 (see 2002040060).