The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security will send an information collection proposal to the Office of Management and Budget relating to reports of requests for restrictive trade practices or boycotts, according to a notice published in the Federal Register. The information is used to monitor requests for participating in foreign boycotts. Comments are due to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OIRA_Submission@omb.eop.gov by March 26.
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security will send an information collection proposal to the Office of Management and Budget relating to foreign availability procedures, according to a notice published in the Federal Register. The information collection is used by Congress and industry to make foreign availability determinations under the Export Administration Regulations. Comments are due to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OIRA_Submission@omb.eop.gov by March 26.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs concluded an interagency review of a final rule from the State Department titled “International Traffic in Arms Regulation: Central African Republic.” OIRA received the rule Nov. 26 and concluded its review Feb. 19. The State Department declined to comment.
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.
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).
The Pentagon will “likely” support new U.S. restrictions on foreign sales to Huawei, a reversal of its objection to a proposed rule considered by the Commerce Department earlier this year (see 2001240012), according to a Feb. 12 Reuters report. Reuters said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross recently called Defense Secretary Mark Esper to discuss the rule and the two planned a meeting for next week. The rule would have lowered the U.S.-origin threshold on exports to Huawei to 10 percent, but required the State, Commerce, Defense and Energy departments to approve with input from the Treasury. Trump administration officials plan to meet this month in an attempt to resolve differences over the rule and technology exports to Huawei, and may discuss expanding Commerce’s export control jurisdiction beyond Huawei (see 2002050047).
The Commerce Department withdrew a rule that was expected to impose controls on exports of field effect transistor technology (see 1912170031), according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget. The “Gate-All-Around Field Effect Transistor (GAAFET) Technology” rule, which was sent to OIRA in November and withdrawn Feb. 11, was expected to be one of six rules issued by Commerce early this year (see 1912160032) as part of the agency’s effort to control emerging technologies. Commerce has faced delays while trying to release the rules, which officials expected to be issued by now (see 2002040057). So far, Commerce has issued one rule in the vein of emerging technologies: a January interim final rule to control geospatial imagery software (see 2001030024).
India’s Ministry of Defense amended its export control regulations, according to a notice posted on Feb. 3. The changes include an update to India’s Category 6 munitions list, simplified procedures for the export of munitions list items, and a new “end-to-end” online portal for authorizing exports. In addition, India’s Department of Defense Production will now serve as the licensing authority for Category 6 exports, replacing the Director General of Foreign Trade.
The Commerce Department is seeking comments on an information collection related to the “Technology Letter of Explanation,” Commerce said in a notice. The letter provides a description of the technology proposed for export to allow the Bureau of Industry and Security technical staff to evaluate the impact on the national security and foreign policy of approving a license. Comments are due April 6.
The Strategic Trade Research Institute released a winter-spring report in January on emerging technologies that examines how companies can mitigate trade risks, advocates for a new approach to export controls, and explores the challenges and compliance mechanisms for emerging technology controls from a European perspective. The report from the STRI, a non-profit trade research institute, also provides background on the U.S. effort to control emerging technologies, including the beginning of the export control reform movement in 2010 and the U.S.’s “critical technology approach,” which defines which technologies to target. Among several topics, the report argues more “innovative approaches” are needed to address the rapid rise of emerging technologies, such as an “omni-use” term instead of a “dual-use” term to address the lack of a “broad consensus” on the potential military and civilian uses of certain emerging technologies. The report also introduces a “model” to identify parameters to determine “technology controllability” as governments face the difficult task of controlling “intangible technology exports.”