The Department of Defense must now report to relevant congressional committees 15 days before issuing a waiver of the prohibition on acquisition of U.S. Munitions List (USML) items from Chinese military companies, according to a DoD final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) at 48 CFR Part 225 to implement the requirement in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. The regulation previously required notification to the congressional defense committees within 30 days after the date of the waiver.

The Department of Defense adopted as final, effective May 22, 2012, a December 2011 interim rule (as amended in March 2012) that amended the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to provide that photovoltaic devices to be utilized in performance of any covered contract shall comply with the Buy American statute, subject to the exceptions provided in the Trade Agreements Act of 1979 or otherwise provided by law, to implement a section of the FY 2011 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The Department of Defense issued two interim rules, both effective May 22, 2012, amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA) and the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA), respectively. Comments on both interim rules are due by July 23, 2012.

The Department of Defense issued an interim rule, effective May 22, 2012, amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement requirements of the U.S.-U.K. Defense Trade Treaty and its implementing legislation. The Treaty and statute establish an approved community that includes members of the U.S. government and the government of the U.K.

An interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement will take effect May 15, according to a Federal Register notice to be published May 10 by the Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (For details on the trade agreement, see ITT Online Archives [Ref.12043021]).