TAC Seeking BIS Guidance on Russia Due-Diligence, MEU Applications
The Transportation and Related Equipment Technical Advisory Committee is considering asking the Bureau of Industry and Security for more Russian export control guidance and is hoping to help address the agency's backlog of military end-user license applications, said committee Chair Ari Novis, chief global trade officer for Pratt & Whitney.
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Novis, speaking during a May 11 TransTAC meeting, said his company has run into problems verifying airline operators who say they are no longer Russian-owned and have moved to a country in the Middle East. Another TAC member reported receiving messages from a Russian company that now claims to be based out of Africa. That is “one of the biggest issues we've been trying to deal with,” Novis said.
Some attempts to evade U.S. export controls are more obvious than others, Novis said. After he received and rejected an email request from one Russian company asking to buy engine parts, Novis said he received an “identical” email the next day from the same person but with a different email domain.
“I've seen some fairly ham-handed attempts to evade the sanctions,” he said. “But now comes the problem: What do you do with somebody who isn't so obvious?”
Novis said he hopes the TAC can ask BIS to provide guidance on what companies can do in these scenarios and how much due diligence is sufficient. Perhaps BIS can issue more frequently asked questions, he said. “How due is our due diligence?” Novis said. “Because we are trying to do the right thing.”
BIS has suspended the export privileges of several Russian airlines (see 2204210043, 2203300046 and 2203300041) and has issued a list of Russian and Belarusian aircraft subject to export restrictions (see 2205020003).
The TAC will also look into addressing BIS’s backlog of license applications under its military end-user rule (see 2201270063 and 2007090075). Novis said some licenses have taken more than a year to be processed. “There is no question that there is a resource issue within the agencies because of the [COVID-19] pandemic,” Novis said. “But these are taking an unusually long time.” He said he hopes the TAC can “understand what the concerns are” and “find a way to address them.” A BIS spokesperson didn't comment.