After years of asking for U.S. defense export control reform, Australia is hopeful that change is finally imminent, said Arthur Sinodinos, Australia’s former ambassador to the U.S. before leaving the role earlier this year. Sinodinos, who said he helped oversee the creation of the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership, said he believes Congress will soon pass pending legislation to reduce technology sharing restrictions, and Australia is pushing for “as big an exemption as possible.”
The State and Commerce departments are frequently seeing illegal exports of controlled items, including technical data, by companies that aren’t classifying their products correctly and may not realize they need a license.
American, Australian and British officials were pressed this week about why they haven’t sought to include other close allies -- including Canada, Japan or South Korea -- in an ongoing effort to reduce burdensome U.S. defense export control requirements. Speaking during a summit of government and defense industry representatives from more than 25 countries, the officials said reducing restrictions as part of the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership has proven complicated, and the nations aren’t yet ready to expand the group.
Jenner & Block partner Rachel Alpert was tapped to serve as the chief counsel to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the firm announced on Oct. 24. Alpert has worked at Jenner & Block since 2021 and has fleshed out the firm's national security, sanctions and export controls practice, along with the human rights and global strategy practice. Her practice centered around export controls and sanctions proceedings under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, Export Administration Regulations and OFAC regulations, among other things. Prior to working at Jenner & Block, Alpert worked as an attorney-adviser to the State Department and as counsel at Latham & Watkins.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls last week released the presentation slides from its Defense Trade Advisory Group plenary meeting earlier this month. During the plenary, DTAG members heard updates on DDTC’s effort to revise U.S. Munitions List controls (see 2310120063), suggested ways to expedite license approvals for marketing demonstrations associated with foreign military sales (see 2310130032) and more.
The State Department on Oct. 17 sent a proposed rule for interagency review that could make changes to certain registration fees under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. An agency official said earlier this month the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls was preparing to soon propose changes to those fees (see 2310120063).
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls will be “migrating” to the “FedRAMP High instance of a multifactor authentication solution” in its Defense Export Control and Compliance System to improve security, the agency announced this week. DDTC said all users should log into DECCS “which will ensure that your account information and passwords are automatically synced with the new upgraded instance.”
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls sent a final rule for interagency review that could make certain export control changes to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The rule is expected to finalize an April interim final rule that removed export controls from certain high-energy storage capacitors (see 2304260017).
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls should publish guidance and take other steps to help expedite approvals for marketing demonstrations and other “pre-delivery activities” that occur before a foreign military sale, industry officials told the agency during its Defense Trade Advisory Group plenary last week. Officials also gave a host of other recommendations aimed at addressing issues plaguing the FMS program, including fixes that could help other agencies understand when a license isn’t required.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is drafting at least two rules to make “targeted revisions” to the U.S. Munitions List and is preparing to soon propose changes to its registration fees, said Timothy Betts, DDTC’s acting deputy assistant secretary. Betts also said the State Department is looking to hire a DDTC-dedicated attorney adviser and stressed the importance of defense companies having compliance buy-in from upper management.