BIS Final Rule Revises CCL to Conform With Wassenaar Changes, Addition/Expansion of Unilateral U.S. Controls, Etc. (Part IV)

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued a final rule, effective July 15, 2005, which revises certain entries on the Commerce Control List (CCL) that are controlled for national security reasons in Categories 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Part I (telecommunications), 6, 7, 8, and 9, and definitions to conform with changes in the Wassenaar Arrangement's List of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies and Statements of Understanding maintained and agreed to by governments participating in the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies (Wassenaar Arrangement).

In addition, this final rule adds Slovenia to the list of Wassenaar member countries in the EAR. This final rule also adds or expands unilateral U.S. controls on certain items consistent with the amendments made to implement the Wassenaar Arrangement's decisions.

This is Part IV of a multi-part series of summaries on this BIS final rule. Part IV focuses on some of the amendments affecting CCL Category 3 (Electronics). Part V will cover the remaining amendments affecting this category. See future issues of ITT for additional summaries.

Amendments to Category 3 - Electronics

ECCN 3A001. According to BIS, the final rule amends Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) 3A001 by:

a) Revising paragraph 3A001.a.3.c for microprocessor microcircuits, micro-computer microcircuits, and microcontroller microcircuits by increasing the controlling number of data or instruction bus or serial communication ports from "one'' to "three,'' and increasing the direct external interconnection between parallel microprocessor microcircuits from a transfer rate exceeding "150 Mbyte/s'' to "1000 Mbyte/s or greater.''

BIS explains that the Wassenaar Arrangement agreed to raise the threshold for the number of ports to three and the transfer rate to 1000 Mbyte/s in 3A001.a.3.c because these thresholds will not adversely affect national security, as the new thresholds fall just below what is currently being used in some military systems.

The revision to 3A001.a.3.c will expand the availability of License Exception Civil End Users (CIV) for deemed exports of technology for the development or production of 3A001.a.3.c commodities, as described in 3E001.

b) Revising the control parameter of conversion time to output word rate to reduce control interpretation ambiguities across various analog-to-digital (A-D) architectures. The conversion time parameter did not take into account latency or techniques used to perform conversions. Therefore, this final rule revises paragraph 3A001.a.5.a for A-D converter integrated circuits by:

Splitting 3A001.a.5.a.1 into two separate ranges of resolution with different controlling output parameters: "A resolution of 8 bit or more, but less than 10 bit, with an output rate greater than 500 million words per second;'' and "A resolution of 10 bit or more, but less than 12 bit, with an output rate greater than 200 million words per second;''

Revising the controlling parameter in 3A001.a.5.a.3 for A-D converter integrated circuits with a resolution of 12 bit from "with a total conversion time of less than 20 ns'' to with an output rate greater than 50 million words per second;''

Revising the controlling parameter in 3A001.a.5.a.4 for A-D converter integrated circuits with a resolution of more than 12 bit but equal to or less than 14 bit from a "total conversion time of less than 200 ns;'' to an "output rate greater than 5 million words per second;''

Revising the controlling parameter in 3A001.a.5.a.5 for A-D converter integrated circuits with a resolution of more than 14 bit from a total conversion time of less than 1 &956;s'' to an "output rate greater than 1 million words per second.''

c) Replacing the explanation for "total conversion time'' in Technical Note 2 with explanations "for number of bits in the output word'' and "output rate'' in the new Technical Notes 2 through 4. This change was made pursuant to agreed definition clarifications made at the Plenary Meeting to be consistent with changes to the control parameters for Analog-Digital Converters.

According to BIS, the amendments to 3A001.a.5.a were agreed to by the Wassenaar Arrangement because the use of conversion time and sample rate metrics are not consistent across different Analog-Digital Converter (ADC) architectures. The revisions in this rule update the control parameter to account for changes on the architectures of ADCs--specifically pipelined converters and sigma delta converters - where conversion time and sampling rate are not appropriate indicators of a converter's capabilities.

ECCN 3A002. BIS' final rule amends ECCN 3A002 by:

a) Removing a comma in 3A002.b to conform to the Wassenaar Dual-use List; and

b) Redesignating 3A002.c.2 as new paragraph 3A002.c.3 and revising 3A002.c.1 by splitting it into two paragraphs 3A002.c.1 and new 3A002.c.2:

Paragraph 3A002.c.1 is revised by adding a new parameter "having a 3 dB resolution bandwidth (RBW) exceeding 10 MHz'' for signal analyzers capable of analyzing any frequencies exceeding 31.8 GHz but not exceeding 37.5 GHz.

New paragraph 3A002.c.2 controls signal analyzers capable of analyzing frequencies exceeding 43.5 GHz, which used to be controlled in 3A002.c.1.

BIS states that the amendments to 3A002.c were agreed to by the Wassenaar Arrangement to revise the decontrol to certain signal analyzers by replacing the 31.8-37.5 GHz range frequency blackout that was agreed to in December 2002 with controls based on resolution bandwidth. This action is complementary to and consistent with the controls on signal generators agreed to by the Wassenaar Arrangement in December 2003.

(See ITT's Online Archives or 07/19/05, 07/22/05, and 07/25/05 news, 05071930, 05072215, and 05072515, for Parts I - III of BP's summary.)

BIS final rule (D/N 050607153-5153-01, FR Pub 07/15/05) available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/pdf/05-13581.pdf.