Wassenaar Arrangement Implementation Roundup

On July 15, the Bureau of Industry and Security published a massive final rule implementing the decisions made at the December 2004 plenary meeting of the Wassenaar Arrangement. Other Wassenaar participants have already taken similar steps to codify the group’s changes at a national level or will do so in the near future. In addition to the Wassenaar-conforming revisions to Commerce Control List Categories 1-9, BIS also took this opportunity to add or expand some unilateral US controls.

A summary of the regulation’s highlights follows:

• A hearty howdy to Slovenia which recently joined Wassenaar. But because the Balkan state previously became a member of both the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the actual impact to licensing requirements under the EAR is minimal.
• Imposes anti-terrorism (AT) controls on commodities and related software and technology controlled under portions of ECCNs 6A001, 6A002, 6A003, 7A002.
• The rule imposes regional stability (RS) controls on commodities and related technology controlled under portions of ECCNs 6A002 and 6A003.
• United Nations (UN) controls added to 6A002.a.3.f.
• New or expanded national security (NS) controls on commodities and related software and technology controlled under portions of ECCNs 6A001, 6A002, 6A003 to all destinations with an “X” in NS column 2.
• New or expanded national security (NS) controls on commodities and related software and technology controlled under ECCNs 7A002.b to all destinations except our friendly neighbors to the north.
• Wassenaar dual use list-conforming revisions to ECCNs 1C008, 2B001, 2B005, 2B006, 2B201, 3A001, 3A001, 3A002, 3B001, 3B002, 3B991, 3B992, 4D001, 4E001, 5A001, 6A001, 6A002, 6A003, 6A006, 6A993, 6A996, 6E001, 6E002, 6E003, 6E991, 6E993, 7A002, 7A007, 8A002, and 9A001.

There Wassenaar changes are too many and too technical to discuss at length here, but clearly night vision equipment and technology is the subject of many of the additional US controls. One reason for the addition of numerous unilateral American controls can perhaps be found in this passage from the rule:

“The focal plane array industry is changing rapidly and needs to be monitored. The amendments to ECCNs 6A002 and 6A003 are subject to a Validity Note. Control of these items is valid until December 5, 2007. Renewal of controls will require unanimous consent by all Wassenaar Arrangement Participating States. Applying a validity note on these items requires Participating States to reassess the need for controlling these items based on technological developments and strategic applications.”