State Issues Final Rule Implementing Australia Defense Trade Treaty
The State Department published the final rule amending the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to implement the 2007 Defense Trade Treaty with Australia. The changes -- which won’t become effective until the U.S.-Australia treaty enters into force -- define the scope of allowed exemptions. They also include a supplemental listing defense articles and services that may not be exported or furnished.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The final rule includes some minor changes based on comments to the proposed rule, issued in November 2011 (see 11112215 for a complete report on the proposed rule). Some of the changes in the final rule are:
- Revising section 126.16(a)(5), which says the section does not apply to the export of defense article or service from the U.S. pursuant to the Foreign Military Sales program. Once such items are delivered to the Australian government, they can be treated as if they were exported pursuant to the treaty.
- Revised section 126.16(g)(4) to indicate that marketing to members of the Australian community is covered, as long as it is for an approved treaty end-use, and meets the other requirements in the section.
- Ten comments expressed concern over the too-broad scope of the supplement, and said it possibly excluded so much it made the exemption not useful. To amend this, the final rule make clarifying edits “to the extent possible within the confines of the treaty,” the rule said.
President Obama signed a bill to implement defense trade treaties with Australia and the United Kingdom in 2010 (see 10101311). State Department published the final rule implementing the new regulations with the United Kingdom in 2012 (see 12032121).