The State Department updated several forms in its Defense Export Control and Compliance System last week to add “new voluntary disclosure field questions,” the agency’s Directorate of Defense Trade Control said. The updates to forms DS-6004 (Block 10), DS-4294 (Block 11) and DSP-85 (Block 9) will allow industry to report a disclosure previously filed with DDTC’s compliance division when submitting one of the listed licenses.
The State Department’s Defense Export Control and Compliance System registration and licensing applications will be unavailable to users from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. EST March 2 for scheduled system maintenance. Users should ensure any work in progress is saved before the down time period.
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The State Department is seeking public comments on information collections overseen by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. One deals with approval requests for its manufacturing license agreements, technical assistance agreements and other agreements; another involves the maintenance of records by DDTC registrants; a third involves the annual brokering report; and the last relates to the agency’s “Brokering Prior Approval” license. Comments are due March 30.
Two U.S. manufacturers welcomed December proposals by the State Department that would expand its regulatory definition of activities that don’t qualify as exports, but they urged the agency to provide even further flexibility. In comments released this month, both Boeing and Maxar Technologies said the agency should expand a proposal that would allow companies to avoid submitting license applications for when a foreign government’s armed forces or U.N. personnel takes a defense article out of a previously approved country.
The Commerce, State and Justice departments fined an American 3D printing company more than $25 million combined after it committed a range of export violations, including illegal shipments of aerospace technology and metal alloy powder to China and controlled design documents to Germany.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls this week finalized its first reorganization rule for its defense trade regulations (see 2203220013), addressing some commenters’ concerns and recommendations. But DDTC didn’t make many substantial changes in the final rule, which takes effect Feb. 27, saying it would consider some revisions in future rulemakings and stressing that this rule was “focused on movement and consolidation” of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
A federal government payment website, Pay.gov, will be offline Feb. 26 from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. for scheduled maintenance and upgrades, the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls said. "All Pay.gov services will be unavailable during the deployment window, including paying Registration fees," DDTC said.
The State Department’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations need “major reform” if the U.S. wants the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership to succeed, Rajiv Shah, a fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, wrote Feb 16. AUKUS, which is aimed at allowing the three trade partners to better share sensitive defense technology, is being hindered by the ITAR, Shah said in his ASPI article, which too often “stymie[s] collaboration and innovation between allies” and provides “no obvious reduction in security risk.”
The State Department completed interagency review of a final rule this month that would further reorganize the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The rule would reorganize ITAR Part 120 to consolidate all definitions and “to organize the definitions in a manner that enhances their clarity and ease of use,” the agency said. The department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls in March issued the first in a series of rules expected to reorganize the ITAR (see 2203220013) and sent it for review in November (see 2211160018).