BIS Makes EAR Technical Corrections, Etc. for January 1st Edition of CFR
The Bureau of Industry and Security has issued a final rule, effective December 15, 2008, which makes technical corrections the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and provides accurate authority citations for the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) edition that is to be compiled as of January 1, 2009.
BIS' final rule revises the authority citation paragraphs for 14 parts of the EAR to include citations to the most recent presidential notices that extend authority for those parts or to remove an outdated citation or both; updates addresses, telephone numbers, procedures and a definition; removes some potentially confusing language; makes a conforming change to one Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) and restores some language that was dropped during a previous CFR compilation.
Highlights of the Technical Amendments
Highlights of amendments made by BIS' final rule include:
Restoration of ECCN 5B991, amended to license exception. BIS' final rule restores ECCN 5B991 (Telecommunications test equipment, n.e.s.), which appears to have been inadvertently omitted from the January 1, 2000 CFR compilation and has not appeared in the CFR since.
BIS also replaces the phrase LVS: "$1,000 for Syria; N/A to Iran" in the License Exception of ECCN 5B991 with "LVS: N/A" because any authorization to use License Exception LVS for shipments to Syria is precluded by BIS's General Order No. 2 of May 14, 2004 (Supplement No. 1 to 15 CFR Part 736). With the removal the value limit for Syria, there is no longer any stated value limit in ECCN 5B991 that would apply to any destination.
Updated address and procedure to appoint a Technical Advisory Committee. BIS' final rule adds the title "Assistant Secretary for Export Administration" to the address to which requests to appoint a new technical advisory committee should be sent and removes the statement that such requests be sent via courier to reflect BIS's actual practice regarding such requests.
Removal of de minimis content language. BIS' final rule removes 15 CFR 734.3(b)(4), which could have been read as applying the de minimis exclusion to items in the U.S. (Theexclusion for items that contain no more than the de minimis level of U.S. origin content as set forth in 15 CFR 734.4 applies only to items that are not located in the U.S.)
(See BIS final rule for a complete list of regulatory amendments.)
BIS contact - William Arvin (202) 482-2440
BIS final rule (D/N 0811171457-81460-01, FR Pub 12/15/08) available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-29604.pdf