BIS Official Says AES Critical to Assess Export Changes
The Automated Export System (AES) is critical for the Bureau of Industry and Security to assess export control reform's effect on exports, as the interagency effort continues to transfer United States Munitions List (USML) items to the Commerce Control List (CCL), according to Director of Office of Technology Evaluation at BIS Gerard Horner. Speaking at an AES panel during the Update 2013 Conference on Export Control, Horner said new validations and other “new elements” in the AES allow BIS to assess the impact regulations are having on trade.
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“A year from now we will measure that again with the transition of thousands of items coming from the United States Munitions List to the Commerce Control List,” said Horner. "And we’ll see if those percentages have changed. Is it going to be more ITAR than CCL or more CCL than ITAR?”
Of the roughly $1.5 trillion in exports that left the U.S. in 2012, an estimated ten percent of the items are licensed, under a license exception or subject to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Horner said. Currently seven percent of that figure is “ITAR-related” items. As that amount is poised to change with the transfers made under the administration’s export control reform initiative, Horner said the AES will be a mutually reliable utility.
“We decided to make a commitment at BIS that anytime we have a major change to Export Administration Regulations, we should really look at the Automated Export System and make it an educational tool and a compliance tool for you the industry and to improve the measuring capability for us at the U.S. government,” said Horner.