The Practising Law Institute plans its yearly “Coping with U.S. Export Controls” seminar Dec. 11-12 in Washington, D.C. The seminar will provide insights on Export Control Reform; sanctions policy; international sanctions developments; the State Department’s proposed brokering rule; new developments in Department of Energy export controls; enforcement; and compliance programs. Government agency officials, including from the Bureau of Industry and Security, will attend the seminar. Registration and more information is available here.

The Agricultural Marketing Service released the Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report (OSCAR) for the week of Sept. 12-18. The weekly report contains data on container availability for westbound transpacific traffic at 18 intermodal locations in the U.S.¹ from the nine member carriers of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA)². Although the report is compiled by AMS, it covers container availability for all merchandise, not just agricultural products.

The Bureau of Industry and Security updated legal authority citations in the Export Administration Regulations in final rule set for publication in the Sept. 14 Federal Register. BIS changed citations to reflect the latest extensions by executive order of export control regulations (E.O. 49699) and the national emergency with respect to the government of Syria (E.O. 27559). The final rule is “purely procedural, and makes no changes other than to revise Code of Federal Regulations authority citations paragraphs,” BIS said. “It does not change the text of any section of the EAR, nor does it alter any right, obligation or prohibition that applies to any person under the EAR.”

The Census Bureau scheduled the fifth webinar in its eight-part series on “The Fundamentals of Exporting” for Sept. 19 at 1 p.m. In the webinar, “Your Free Tools of the Trade -- AESDirect and AESPcLink,” exporters will learn what AESDirect and AESPcLink are, the benefits and features of each application, and how to use them to transmit export shipments. Registration is available here.

The State Department should improve its export licensing database to better identify authorized unmanned aerial vehicle exports, GAO recommended in a report. It also said relevant agencies should improve mechanisms for sharing information relevant to the export licensing process, and that State and DOD should harmonize their UAV end-use monitoring approaches. GAO said the agencies generally agreed with the recommendations.

California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 2012, allowing California to form public-private partnerships with nonprofit organizations like the Bay Area Council to reopen foreign trade and investment offices, the Bay Area Council said. California's foreign trade offices, and the Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency were closed in 2003 amidst budget shortfalls. Bill 2012 transfers international trade policy to the state's single point of contact for businesses and job creation efforts, the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). "This bill shows the world California is open for business," said Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council.

The Census Bureau will develop a pilot program similar to the now-defunct option 3 filing procedure following publication of its Foreign Trade Regulations rewrite, said a Census official at the Sept. 11 meeting of the Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee. The rewrite is “extremely close to getting official concurrence,” she said, and Census hopes for publication of the final rule this fall. The pilot, which will be open to all exporters, will provide an option similar to option 4 postdeparture filing, but include limited filing of information before export.

The Agricultural Marketing Service released the Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report (OSCAR) for the week of Sept. 5-11. The weekly report contains data on container availability for westbound transpacific traffic at 18 intermodal locations in the U.S.¹ from the nine member carriers of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA)². Although the report is compiled by AMS, it covers container availability for all merchandise, not just agricultural products.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is asking for comments by Oct. 9 on the effectiveness of its licensing procedures as defined in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) for the export of agricultural commodities to Cuba. Under the provisions of Section 906(c) of Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7205(c)), BIS must submit a biennial report to the Congress on the operation of the licensing system implemented pursuant to Section 906(a) for the preceding two-year period. BIS is currently preparing a biennial report on the operation of the licensing system for the two-year period from Oct. 1, 2010 through Sept. 30, 2012. BIS will include a description of these comments in this biennial report.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is asking for comments by Oct. 9 on the effect of existing foreign policy-based export controls in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Under the Export Administration Act, export controls maintained for foreign policy purposes require annual extension. Part of this process is an annual report to Congress. Comments will be made available for public and section and copying, and included in this report, BIS said.