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).
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week suspended the export privileges of two Canadian residents after they tried to ship controlled goods without the required licenses.
The State Department can’t track how many voluntary disclosures it receives involving export violations related to defense services because of “limitations” in its IT system and data collection efforts, the Government Accountability Office said in a report last week. GAO said this may be preventing the agency from evaluating trends or risks related to illegal exports.
DOJ’s new corporate enforcement policies substantially increase compliance incentives and may lead to more voluntary self-disclosures, law firms said. But they also said much of the new policy will depend on how DOJ implements the changes, and it remains unclear how much of a downstream impact the revisions will have on export control and sanctions cases handled by other agencies.
The State Department sent an interim final rule for interagency review that would seek public comments on revisions to the U.S. Munitions List. The rule, sent for review Feb. 2, would request feedback “regarding the technology frontier,” which could help the agency identify specific technology capabilities that have “sufficiently evolved” to consider amending the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The State Department would revise and exclude entries on the USML that “no longer warrant inclusion” and “add entries for critical and emerging technologies that do.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week suspended the export privileges of six people for illegally exporting defense items -- from guns and ammunition to night-vision goggles -- to Hong Kong, Iran, Mexico and Ukraine.