Two USML-CCL Moves Announced as White House Moves on Export Reform
The White House formally notified Congress of changes to the U.S. Munitions List -- on current controls on aircraft and gas turbine engines -- as well as plans to eliminate possible dual license requirements related to USML-Commerce Control List switches, in the administration’s latest step in Export Control Reform Initiative, announced March 8. Relevant congressional committees -- including House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations -- were notified of the USML changes in categories 8 and 19 on March 7, as required by Section 38(f) of the Arms Export Control Act, the White House said in a statement (here). Congress has 30 days to act on the changes. If no action is taken, the changes can become final.
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In an accompanying executive order released March 8, President Obama updated delegated authorities relating to import and export controls, including allowing the State Department to license items that move to the Commerce Control List's 600 series, to prevent potential any double-licensing requirement. Items licensed or approved under this delegation, however, remain subject to Commerce jurisdiction, including for enforcement purposes, the White House said.
The executive order also establishes procedures for notifying Congress about transactions involving certain 600-series items that have moved from the USML. The order directs Commerce to establish procedures for Congressional notification “about export licenses for those certain items that, while no longer subject to the statutory notification requirements of the Arms Export Control Act, warrant continued transparency and notification to Congress,” the White House said. Commerce will be required to do a notification comparable to State, a senior administration official said in a March 8 press call. Notification requirements will also be maintained if firearms are moved off the State list, the official said.
In addition to the notification requirement, the order consolidates registration and licensing of brokering activities for defense articles and services into the State Department. This includes activities and services on either the State or Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives list; and services under the Arms Export Control Act. The executive order is an update of one issued by President Gerald Ford in the 1970s.
More Congressional notifications about USML changes are forthcoming, a senior administration official said. Some categories have already been published for public comment, and though there is no timeline “we anticipate that more final rules will be published this year,” the official said in the March 8 press call. And though details of the sequester are still being worked out, the same official said it wont prevent continued work on the President’s export reform initiative. “This is a project that has taken quite a bit of time, [and] in the long view it is going ahead,” the official said.
Also on the press call, another official stressed that the items switched from USML to CCL are “not being decontrolled. They are simply moving to a different set of export control rules.” And even when items move under the Commerce Department’s jurisdiction, the State Department, FBI, CBP and other enforcement agencies will continue to enforce export controls, the official said.
Some congressional leaders and industry representatives have already praised the move. The Aerospace Industries Association said in a statement it was a critical step towards fixing America’s inflexible, unclear export control system. Senate Foreign Relations member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said in a statement the new reforms will streamline regulations while “cutting red tape, and freeing businesses to sell their products in new markets overseas.”