Export Control Reform (ECR)

On Sunday, the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced novel and sweeping sanctions on specific categories of services in order to cripple Russia’s wartime capabilities and sanctioned key individuals at Russian banks and state-owned television stations. Concurrently, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) made available for public inspection a final rule expanding export restrictions by imposing a license requirement for exports, reexports, or transfers (in-country) to and within Russia on additional items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).
Continue Reading Novel Sanctions Against Business-Related Services Connected to Russia and Additional Export Restrictions

Last week, the United States government imposed additional restrictions on the imports from, and exports to, Russia. The import changes stem from the Suspending Normal Trade Relations with Russia and Belarus Act, signed into law by President Biden, that increase the duties for products that claim Russia or Belarus as their country of origin. In terms of exports, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a press release last Saturday announcing further controls on the export and reexport of U.S.-origin and certain foreign-produced commodities, software, and technologies to Russia and Belarus by amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The expanded rule is currently under public inspection in the Federal Register and will be published tomorrow.
Continue Reading Additional Import and Export Restrictions in Response to Russia’s Aggression in Ukraine

How do you tackle the complicated and often seemingly insurmountable problem of human rights abuses around the world? The U.S. Government typically uses a variety of tools: diplomatic efforts, international aid, sanctions, import restrictions on forced labor – the whole carrot-and-stick universe. Enter… Export Controls.
Continue Reading The Intersection of Export Controls and Human Rights: Combating the Misuse of Technologies to Curb Human Rights Abuses

On May 10, 2021, the EU adopted its new, revised version of Regulation (EC) No 428/2009 (the “Regulation”).  It is widely acknowledged to be the first major reform to the structure of the EU’s export control regime since 2009.

The text of the Regulation was approved by the European Parliament on March 26, 2021. In November 2020, the Council and European Parliament representatives reached a provisional political agreement on the Regulation. The reform of EU export controls had initially been proposed by the European Commission in September 2016.
Continue Reading A New Era of Export Controls Begins in the EU: The Revised EU Dual-Use Export Controls to Promote Human Rights

“A free and open economy is the foundation of global peace and prosperity.”
– Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, G20 summit, June 2019.

On July 1, 2019, only few days after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe opened the G20 summit with a speech endorsing an open global economy, the Japanese government announced that it will impose tighter controls on technology-related exports from Japan to South Korea for reasons of national security. The controls may have a devastating effect on trade between the two countries and will create further drag on the world economy.
Continue Reading A Chinese Export License to Get a Smart Phone? Tech-Tonic Changes in World Export Controls

This article originally appeared in Risk & Compliance magazine in the UK, a publication of Financier Worldwide. The piece includes UK spelling and grammar.

Key Takeaways:

A wave is coming. An enormous wave of regulation will soon crash on Silicon Valley, Boston and other tech centres around the United States, and very few people have their surfboards ready.

Major technologies in exciting emerging fields (among them, biomedicines, virtual reality, and robotics) will soon be subject to strict export controls that will limit who can receive the technologies, who can use them, and even who can research them.

Forthcoming export controls will disrupt logistics planning, information sharing, R&D, and acquisition strategies for companies in the United States and all around the world.
Continue Reading INTERNATIONAL TECH INVESTMENT ISSUE – A Wave of Export Regulation to Hit US Technologies

On March 8, the U.S. government signaled regulatory changes that may create new opportunities for international collaboration on satellite development, global sales of satellite and launch equipment, and even sharing launch technology.

. . . and the Government wants you to weigh in.
Continue Reading Clear for More Takeoffs: Now is the Time to Have Your Voice Heard on New Satellite and Launch Regulations

In our blog shop, most of the news we scan is the nerdy minutia of regulatory nuance. But the other day, we found big news, a real scoop. The ITAR will be rewritten to remove guns and ammunition from its control.

Yes, you read that correctly, a plan has been proposed within the State Department to migrate the first three categories of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to the control of the Export Administration Regulations within the coming year. Whether the State Department will go so far as to rename ITAR Part 121 the United States Munitions List (USML), the “United States List” remains to be seen.
Continue Reading The United States Munitions List: When Guns Come Off of the ITAR

On December 30 the Commerce Department shifted the oil export landscape as it had existed for 40 years, with only a little administrative sleight-of-hand.
Continue Reading Change Your Entire Energy Export Policy Using This One Weird Trick! BIS “Clarifies” Short Supply Controls to Make Oil Exporting Easier

Every time there is a new round of reforms under the President’s Export Control Reform initiative, we hear the same advice:

  1. Controls on certain items are eliminated or reduced (which creates new opportunities for manufacturers and exporters); but
  2. The new rules bring new complexities, so be careful.

Attorneys in the export control space correspondingly inundate us with articles advising, in effect, call your export control lawyer.Continue Reading Military Electronics Export Reform: Let the Chips Fall Where They May