Industry Groups Oppose Proposed Changes to EAR Deemed Export Rules
March 2008
A letter from a group of 12 trade organizations was sent to the Department of Commerce on February 15, 2008 opposing the many proposed changes to the US deemed export control policy. The Deemed Export Advisory Committee outlined these changes in their December 20, 2007 report. The letter argued that many of the approaches are not sufficient with the industry, urging Commerce “to go back to the drawing board” and work closely with industry to develop a more “balanced” approach.
Over the past 20 years the government has not been able to agree on meaningful reductions to the scope of the controlled technologies lists. The DEAC did not attempt to make any recommendations fro narrowing the list because of such criteria and the letter agreed.
The DEAC proposed a “probable loyalty” test in reference to foreign nationals, this test would significantly increase the number of foreign nationals subject to deemed export licensing and restrictions to US origin technological information. The letter argued that would lead to an expansion of both the list of countries whose nationals would become subject to deemed export controls and the number of such nationals that would be subject to licensing.
Overall, the group of 12 stressed the fact that the DEAC’s suggestions would harm US technological competitiveness and would lead to a license “logjam”, there will be increases in both the number of deemed export license applications and an increase in license denials fro nationals of more countries. All in all the US government is not prepared to process this many licenses.
The DOC has already announced that its Bureau of Industry and Security has begun to implement the committee’s recommendations. They has been directed to immediately create an Emerging Technologies Advisory Committee and the BIS is also beginning to improve outreach and engagement efforts to the academic and technology communities about the progress and scope of its deemed export policy efforts. The BIS has begun to work with the departments of Defense, State and Energy to consider other specific DEAC proposals.
More information:
BIS- The Deemed Export Rule in the Era of Globalization (PDF)
