The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls recently posted two new frequently-asked-questions under its licensing and registration guidance pages.

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls posted the slide presentations from the April 28 Defense Trade Advisory Group plenary meeting (see 2204290032). The slides include presentations from several DTAG working groups, including a recommendation for a new International Traffic in Arms Regulation exemption, recommendations for clarifications and corrections to certain ITAR definitions, and a report on ITAR-related challenges for controlled unclassified information.

A federal government payment website, Pay.gov, will undergo “critical maintenance activity” from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT May 21 and may be unavailable to users, the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls said. DDTC said the outage will affect users paying registration fees during that window. Questions or concerns should be directed to Pay.gov customer support at 800-624-1373 or pay.gov.clev@clev.frb.org.

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls should make several additional changes and clarifications to its first rule that reorganized its defense trade regulations, two commenters told the agency. The agency should include clearer definitions for end-use and end-user, a trade group said. An aerospace company urged DDTC to clarify sections of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations that could have “unintended consequences.”

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls will launch an updated licensing application this summer in the Defense Export Control and Compliance System, the agency said in a notice last week. DDTC is updating the application to work in a new software platform, “providing greater flexibility, security and administration of the application to the support team,” the agency said. The update is a “significant step in DDTC’s effort to continuously modernize the DECCS application suite.” DDTC will hold a webinar June 9 to discuss the update, including a demonstration of the application, an overview of how it affects DDTC partners and a timeline for its release.

Companies need to stay on top of their compliance because significant escalation of Russia-related sanctions is possible, KPMG experts said. The "dramatic increase in the use of sanctions and other controls" over the past two months will likely continue to expand in complexity, said Jason Rhoades, KPMG senior manager-trade and customs services, during a May 11 webinar. Because Russian behavior toward Ukraine has not changed, "we expect [the use of sanctions] to continue to grow," Rhoades said. "There is significant room still out there for [sanctions] escalation."

Israel’s Defense Ministry is granting fewer export licenses to the country’s spyware companies amid mounting pressure from the U.S., according to an April 25 report from Globes, an Israeli business news site. The report said Israeli company Nemesis was forced to shut down last month after the country’s Defense Export Control Agency refused to grant it export licenses, and other industry executives have complained about an “abrupt change in policy” toward companies exporting spyware. Other companies -- including NSO Group, Cognyte, QuaDream and Wintego -- are on a “short list” of businesses that have struggled in recent months from a “lack of approvals for new deals and cancellation of export permits that have expired,” the report said.

The State Department is “finalizing” discussions with several trading partners on its new open general license concept for certain defense exports, senior agency official Mike Miller. The concept, which could begin as a pilot program, would allow U.S. exports to certain U.S. trading partners without having to apply for a specific license (see 2109290056).

Anthony Rapa, a former partner at Kirkland & Ellis, joined Blank Rome as a partner in its National Security practice, the firm announced. Blank Rome said Rapa will work on "sanctions and export control-related matters in cross-border transactions, mergers and acquisitions, government investigations, and regulatory matters." Such issues under Rapa's portfolio include regulations administered under the Export Administration Regulations, the Bureau of Industry and Security and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls was able to close significantly more end-use checks in 2021 compared with 2020 despite some continued travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In its annual Blue Lantern report released this month -- which details the agency’s end-use monitoring efforts on controlled defense articles and services -- DDTC said it closed checks on 256 export licenses or applications during fiscal year 2021, an increase of more than 38% from FY 2020.