DDTC Hoping to Publish USML Revisions by Year's End, Official Says
The State Department is prioritizing work on several new rules to amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, including updates to multiple U.S. Munitions List categories and revisions to the agency’s exempted technologies list (ETL), an agency official said this week.
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The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is specifically focusing on revisions to USML categories IV (launch vehicles, guided missiles, ballistic missiles, rockets, torpedoes, bombs and mines), XI (military electronics) and XV (spacecraft and related articles), agency official Dilan Wickrema said. The agency also is hoping to soon publish a rule to revise the agency’s ETL, which was previewed in DDTC’s spring regulatory agenda (see 2207050015).
Wickrema, speaking during a Sept. 13 webinar hosted by DDTC, said the agency hopes to publish the rules before next year. “I can't give specific dates,” he said. But “you should see something by the end of the year in terms of something in the Federal Register for those rules, hopefully. Fingers crossed.”
DDTC earlier this year previewed some of its upcoming changes to the ITAR (see 2206300029), including more rules to reorganize the regulations. The agency issued its first ITAR reorganization rule in March (see 2203220013 and 2205160026) and expects the entire process to take several years.
“It's going to be a multiyear process, similar to what happened with [Export Control Reform],” Wickrema said. “We really want to make sure we get this right. We really want to make sure we're hearing from the regulated community to make sure that we're making changes that benefit everyone and increase the use of the ITAR itself. I think it's going to be a long time, but I think everyone will be very happy by the end of this.”