A pair of U.S. and South African weapon sellers failed to show that the State Department illegally debarred them from exporting goods, a U.S. court said Oct. 26. The court’s decision stemmed from a lawsuit filed by U.S. weapons exporter Robert Thorne and South African gun reseller Dave Sheer and his businesses, who said they were “de facto debarred” from trading weapons by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls despite not being placed on a debarment list.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls on Oct. 26 released the presentation slides from the Defense Trade Advisory Group's Oct. 22 meeting. The slides contain recommendations and feedback from the DTAG working groups on DDTC operations. During the meeting, a State Department official said the agency is “very close” to publishing its first rule to reorganize the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (see 2010220049).
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for Oct. 19-23 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The State Department is close to publishing the first in a series of rules to reorganize the International Traffic in Arms Regulations after months of legal reviews (see 1907120011) and a delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2005080038), an agency official said. The first rule, part of a larger reorganization effort led by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, will tackle the organization of definitions in the ITAR. Other rules will consolidate exemptions and streamline licensing requirements and policies.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for Oct. 5-9 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls issued guidance Oct. 5 on the “see-through rule” -- a “colloquial phrase” that refers to the impact of controls under International Traffic in Arms Regulations. DDTC clarified the rule by stressing that ITAR controls and requirements do not “disappear simply because the defense article is integrated into another item.” If an ITAR-controlled component is integrated into a “larger system or end-item,” the component does “not lose its identity.” DDTC said “the ITAR ‘sees through’ the larger system or end-item and continues to regulate that defense article.”
The State Department is working to improve its new online licensing system and wants to establish an industry working group to help the system run smoothly, said Karen Wrege, chief information officer at the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Wrege said she was surprised at how quickly industry acclimated to the Defense Export Control and Compliance System (see 2002040060 and 1905070055), which she said has made export licensing processes easier for those working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The State Department announced procurement bans and export controls on 11 entities and one person for violating export restrictions imposed by multilateral control groups. The restrictions, said a notice released Oct. 2, apply to entities in China, Russia, Syria, Iraq, Iran, their subsidiaries and one person in China for illegally trading items restricted by multilateral control groups, including the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group. The order bans U.S. government procurement and government sales to any of the entities or people involving items on the U.S. Munitions List and controlled under the Arms Export Control Act. It also suspends export licenses for items controlled under the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 and the Export Administration Regulations. The order took effect Sept. 23 and will remain in place for two years. It applies to the following entities:
The State Department may intervene in certain patent applications if they contain technical data controlled under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls said in guidance issued Sept. 30. While DDTC said it does not “restrict” the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from publishing patents, it may impose an “invention secrecy order” on the patent application if it contains ITAR-sensitive information. That secrecy order would force the USPTO to “withhold the publication of the application or the grant of a patent.”
The State Department issued the final version of its guidance on exports of surveillance technology (see 1909040071 and 1911060049), which includes definitions and guidance principles for companies to weigh before exporting sensitive items to potential human rights abusers. The Sept. 30 guidance expands on the agency’s initial definition of human rights due diligence and offers a range of red flags and due diligence considerations, but did not significantly narrow its definition for surveillance items, despite requests from industry.