The State Department said Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela are not cooperating fully with U.S. antiterrorism efforts, pursuant to section 40A of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2781), and Executive Order 11958. The announcement was certified to Congress in a notice to be published May 30 in the Federal Register.
The negotiations toward an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) resumes July 2-27 in New York, the State Department said. Work on the treaty, which is supported by the U.S., began in 2009, when 153 countries at the U.N. voted to support it.
Directorate of Defense Trade Controls notification of name/address changes:
The State Department's "Blue Lantern" end-use monitoring program checks were done in 88 countries in FY 2011, it said in its new report on the program. The report indicated fewer checks were done among North Atlantic Treaty Organization member countries with long-established trade patterns, whereas there are proportionally more checks in the rest of the world. In FY 2011, the proportion of checks conducted in the Americas was double that region's share of license applications (28% vs. 14%), due to a significant number of inquiries on firearms authorizations, where security and diversion of such weapons is an ongoing concern. In FY 2011, DTCC closed 592 Blue Lantern cases, of which 161 (27%) were determined to be "unfavorable." That means the findings of fact were not consistent with the authorization request or approval. The percentage was high because Blue Lantern checks are selected based on potential risk of diversion or misuse and are not a random sampling across all State Department licenses, it said. It also noted an unfavorable Blue Lantern does not necessarily mean diversion or illicit activity was involved. Detailed findings are available here.
The State Department, World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recently issued the following travel warnings, travel alerts, country specific information sheets, and disease outbreak-related information: State Department Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department decides, based on all relevant information, to recommend that Americans avoid travel to a certain country.
The Group of Eight leaders meeting over the weekend agreed to cooperate to limit cross-border counterfeiting and piracy, they said in their closing statement. They said they "note the importance of intellectual property rights systems as drivers of innovation, and acknowledge the importance of improving IPR capacity of the developing world. ... G8 Leaders further understand that global trade in counterfeit and pirated goods poses an increasingly significant threat to our nations' economies."
The State Department, World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recently issued the following travel warnings, travel alerts, country specific information sheets, and disease outbreak-related information: State Department Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department decides, based on all relevant information, to recommend that Americans avoid travel to a certain country. The State Department has issued the following travel warnings since ITT's most recent update:
The State Department Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is seeking public comment on its request for Office of Management and Budget approval for the following information collections: "Request to Change End-User, End-Use, and/or Destination of Hardware" and "Request for Advisory Opinion." Comments are due by July 17.
The State Department's Shipping Coordinating Committee will meet at 9:30 am June 6 in Room 51222 of the U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters Building, 2100 Second Street, SW, Washington, to prepare for the fifty-eighth Session of the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Sub-Committee on Safety of Navigation in the U.K. July 2 to 6.
Directorate of Defense Trade Controls notification of name/address changes: