Commerce Relaxes Libya Rules: But Probably Not for You
January 2006
Well, there was a lot of hoopla. And there still is, when people talk about the US Government relaxing its export controls on Libya . The problem is the US actually has not done much lately to relax its export controls on Libya .
The recent hoopla (OK, I just checked the spelling on that because I wasn’t sure, and I found the definitions too: Hoopla: 1.a. Boisterous, jovial commotion or excitement; b. Extravagant publicity: The new sedan was introduced to the public with much hoopla; 2. Talk intended to mislead or confuse.)
OK, let’s start again: The recent boisterous, jovial commotion and excitement among prospective exporters to Libya has been due to the Commerce Department rule removing export licensing requirements for exports to “US persons” in Libya. But, the rule does not do all that much, so why all the joy? Obviously, it just takes little crumbs of relaxation to induce rampant hooplamania among us export control types.
Let’s look at the rule:
License Exception USPL (US Persons in Libya) authorizes exports of items in specified Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) when consigned to, and for the exclusive use in business or professional activities of US persons or their employees only. And, the items must remain under the control and supervision of the US person employer.
For the purpose of this rule, US person generally is based on the EAR 772 definition, which includes US citizens, US permanent residents and protected individuals, anybody in the United States (not really applicable here), and US companies and their branch offices, but not foreign subsidiaries of US companies.
OK, so you can ship stuff to the employees of your US company, but not to your Italian subsidiary that is 100% owned by your US company. But, you can’t ship everything. The only items eligible for export are those classified in these ECCNs or sub-paragraphs of ECCNs:
- 2A994
- 5A992
- 5D992
- 9A990
- 3A991.a through j, and 3A991.n
- 3A992.b.1, 3A992.b.2 and 3A992.c
- 3B992.b
- 4A994, for computers with CTP up to 12,000 MTOPS
- 5A991.b.2, b.4, b.7, c.1 through c.9, e., g, and h.
(Wow, did you ever wonder how much work it took for the US Government to determine that we can trust US persons in Libya to have 3B992.b stuff, but not 3B992.a stuff? I do. I can imagine the meetings where one person said, “yep, let’s give ’em 3B992.b.6 ‘Stored program controlled’ multifunctional focused on beam systems, but I’m telling you, if we start letting 3B992.a electron tube inspection equipment go to US persons over there, we’re gonna end up in some deep do-do.” I wonder if anybody suggested that the rule apply to US persons, excluding US persons of Scottish descent? “You know, we can trust most Americans, but you got those Scottish Americans like John Black, and, well, we just gotta be more careful with them.” )
So, the rule frees up exports of stuff like portable electric generators, computers, weak encryption stuff, and some telecommunications stuff. It does not relax controls on 9A991 or other aerospace stuff.
OK, let’s end this article with the IMPORTANT STUFF:
