State Department Aims to Start Comprehensive Review of ITAR This Year
The State Department this year plans to start its “next generation” of Export Control Reform (ECR) by taking a “wholesale look” at the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) through an extensive review, State Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense Trade Controls Brian Nilsson said Oct. 4 during the Bureau of Industry and Security annual export control policy conference. The ITAR examination would be the first of its kind since 1984, he said. “What we’re actually looking at is the restructuring of the ITAR to basically put it more into a military operations manual with like things together -- put all our authorities in one place, put all our authorizations in one place, put any exemptions … in one place, put all our definitions in one place,” Nilsson said. Any resulting policy change would come through a proposed rule and solicitation for public comment, he said. State hopes that the review will help identify ITAR omissions and contradictions created during ECR efforts “that need to be fixed,” Nilsson said.
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State and BIS are also continuing with Obama administration initiatives to shift items from the U.S. Munitions List (USML) to the Commerce Control List (CCL). The Office of Management and Budget and various federal agencies are reviewing a rulemaking developed by State and BIS to shift items from USML Categories I (firearms, close assault weapons and combat shotguns), II (guns and armament) and III (ammunition/ordnance) to the CCL, Nilsson said. The timing of the rulemaking’s issuance will depend on comments that State and BIS receive from the other agencies, but will probably take “several weeks,” BIS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Export Administration Matt Borman said. Once issued, the rulemaking “will take us on a path to finally completing the review of the entire USML,” Nilsson said. Those categories will be the next set of ECR-related reviews the exporting community will be asked to comment on, Sarah Heidema, acting director of State’s Office of Defense Trade Controls Policy, said during a separate panel.
State also expects to issue a proposed rule this year to complete another round of shifts of items from USML Categories VI (surface vessels of war and special naval equipment), VII (ground vehicles), XIII (materials and miscellaneous articles) and XX (submersible vessels and related articles) to the CCL, according to a presentation at the conference by Heidema. The first round of those transfers occurred through July 2013 State and BIS final rules (see 13070814).
Nilsson said he also expects State to issue a notice of inquiry for comments before 2018 after encountering several problems related to the shift of items in USML Categories V (explosives and energetic materials, propellants, incendiary agents, and their constituents) and XI (military electronics) to the CCL in January and December 2014, respectively (see 14010302 and 1412310014). State also intends to issue a final rule by the end of 2017 to revise Code of Federal Regulations Section 126.4, which covers shipments by or for U.S. government agencies, according to Nilsson and Heidema.