The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking comments on the impact of the Chemical Weapons Convention on “commercial activities” during 2019, BIS said in a notice. BIS said it is soliciting comments to help it prepare for its annual certification to Congress about whether “legitimate commercial activities” of chemical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms are banned by the CWC. Comments are due March 16.
As the final regulations for the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act take effect this week, FIRRMA’s definition for critical technologies remains unclear due to a lack of proposed rules by the Commerce Department on emerging and foundational technologies, trade lawyers said.
Customs duties are estimated at $72 billion in the current fiscal year, and the White House projects that number will climb to $92 billion in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. It projects that duties then will fall to $54 billion the following year.
The Commerce Department is seeking comments on an information collection related to the “Technology Letter of Explanation,” Commerce said in a notice. The letter provides a description of the technology proposed for export to allow the Bureau of Industry and Security technical staff to evaluate the impact on the national security and foreign policy of approving a license. Comments are due April 6.
The Commerce Department still does not have a timeline for releasing its next set of controls on emerging technologies and its advance notice of proposed rulemaking for foundational technologies, despite expectations from top officials that both would be published before 2020, a Bureau of Industry and Security official said. “I would have thought that they would be out earlier,” said Hillary Hess, director of BIS’s regulatory policy division, speaking during a Feb. 4 Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “I think everybody would like to see them come out, but I’m not sure how long it’s going to take. I’m having trouble getting a bead on it myself.”
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is becoming progressively worse at addressing specific sanctions questions from industry stakeholders, leaving queries unanswered and causing companies to hesitate before completing transactions, according to Nixon Peabody trade lawyer Alexandra Lopez-Casero. Companies can employ certain strategies to get responses from OFAC, Lopez-Casero said, but OFAC is typically not as responsive and helpful as other agencies, such as the Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security.
The Commerce Department again postponed the first meeting of its Emerging Technology Technical Advisory Committee and may not reschedule it until March, a Commerce official said. The meeting, which was originally scheduled for Dec. 4, 2019,was initially postponed to January as the agency faced delays in issuing members their security clearances (see 1911200045). But the problem persisted, according to Anita Zinzuvadia, a licensing officer with the Bureau of Industry and Security, who said Commerce canceled the January meeting.
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking comments on a proposal for an information collection that BIS will submit to the Office of Management and Budget, BIS said in a notice. The information collection involves 10 “miscellaneous” activities described in the Export Administration Regulations relating to the exchange of documents among parties in Commerce Department-controlled export transactions. Comments are due Feb. 28.
Twenty states and Washington, D.C., sued the State and Commerce departments and asked a court to vacate the Trump administration's recently released final rules to transfer gun export controls to Commerce. The rules, scheduled to take effect March 9 (see 2001170030), will transfer export control authority from the State Department to Commerce for a range of firearms, ammunition and other defense items. The lawsuit said the rules will create a dangerous lack of oversight over technology and software used for the 3D printing of guns, and violates federal “notice-and-comment procedures” and the Arms Export Control Act.
The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls issued a Jan. 23 guidance on the final rules for the transfer of gun export controls from the State Department to the Commerce Department, including a clarification on license submissions during the transition period. The guidance also clarifies how the rules and transition period affect technical assistance agreements, manufacturing license agreements, reporting requirements, commodity jurisdiction determinations and regulatory oversight responsibilities. The rules -- which were published Jan. 23 and transfer export control authority from the State Department to Commerce for a range of firearms, ammunition and other defense items -- will take effect March 9 (see 2001170030).