Details of BIS Wassenaar Final Rule Changes (Categories 6-7)

May 26, 2011 by Cindy Arevalo|Exports, OFAC and DoD

The Bureau of Industry and Security has issued a final rule, effective May 20, 2011, which revises the Export Administration Regulations to implement the changes made to the Wassenaar Arrangement's¹ List of Dual Use Goods and Technologies maintained and agreed to by governments participating in the Wassenaar Arrangement’s December 2010 Plenary Meeting.

This is Part IV of a multi-part series of summaries of the changes made to harmonize the Export Administration Regulations with the changes made to the Wassenaar List at the 2010 Plenary. Part IV covers the changes made to various Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) in Commodity Control List (CCL) Categories 6-7. See future issues for summaries of the remaining changes.

Category 6 - Sensors and Lasers

ECCN 6A001 is amended by:

Removing 6A001.c from License Exceptions LVS, GBS and CIV eligibility in the License Exceptions section, because this paragraph is moved to ECCN 8A002.r.
Adding a new control for acoustic seabed survey equipment in 6A001.a.1.a because of the usefulness of this equipment in military reconnaissance, including subparagraphs 6A001.a.1.a.1 (surface vessel survey equipment), a.1.a.2 (underwater survey equipment designed for seabed topographic mapping), and a.1.a.3 (Side Scan Sonar (SSS) or Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS), designed for seabed imaging).
Removing the parenthetical phrase in 6A001.a.2 that read ‘‘receiving, whether or not related in normal application to separate active equipment’’ because it is guidance about the control that belongs in a Note. A new Note is added to 6A001.a.2 to provide this guidance about the control.
Moving ECCN 6A001.c (diver deterrent acoustic systems) to ECCN 8A002.r, because the specified diver deterrent systems have no capability to detect divers and are only used to deter divers. This rule designates 6A001.c as reserved. New Nota Bene (N.B.) is added to reference 8A002.r for controls on diver deterrent acoustic systems.

ECCN 6A002 is amended by adding a Note to 6A002.d.3 to exclude encapsulated optical sensing fibers specially designed for bore hole sensing applications, because these fibers have limited use outside of the intended application.

ECCN 6A003 is amended by correcting the abbreviation for Instantaneous Field of View (IFOV) in two places where it is listed as FOV in the technical note following paragraph (b)(4)(b) of Note 3 to 6A003.b.4.b.

ECCN 6A005 is revised by:

Adding a new Note to 6A005.c.1 to exclude dye lasers or other liquid lasers with specified parameters to correct the roll-back on controls resulting from the WA 2005 agreements.
Replacing a period with a semicolon in 6A005.f.4, because a new paragraph follows.
Adding a new paragraph 6A005.g to control laser acoustic detection equipment, and includes a technical note that reads ‘‘laser acoustic detection equipment is sometimes referred to as a laser microphone or particle flow detection microphone.’’ This equipment can be used as a surreptitious listening device over very long distances.

ECCN 6A006 is amended by:

Adding 6A006.e to the list of items excluded from License Exception LVS eligibility, because it has been added to the Wassenaar Arrangement’s Sensitive List.
Removing ‘‘and’’ from 6A006.c.3 and replacing a period with a semicolon in 6A006.d, because this rule adds a new paragraph.
Adding a new paragraph 6A006.e to control specified Underwater ElectroMagnetic Receivers (UEMR). The UEMR can be used in civil applications, such as oil and gas exploration, as well as for military purposes such as mine/vessel detection and alerting.

ECCN 6A008 is amended by:

Removing 6A008.l.3 from the License Exception LVS eligibility paragraph, because this rule removes and reserves this paragraph.
Adding an ‘‘or’’ to the end of 6A008.l.1 to harmonize it with changes in this ECCN;
Removing and reserving 6A008.l.2 and l.3, because these parameters for radar data processing sub-systems are no longer key or major criteria to determining whether these commodities are usable for military applications;
Revising 6A008.l.4 by adding the phrase ‘‘Configured to provide’’ at the beginning, replacing the phrase ‘‘in real time’’ with ‘‘within six seconds,’’ and adding the phrase ‘‘specified by 6A008.f, or 6A008.i.’’ to clarify the control parameter; and
Adding a Nota Bene to reference a related control in the U.S. Munitions List (22 CFR part 121).

ECCN 6D001 is amended by adding 6A004.c and d, and 6A008.d, h, and k to paragraph 3 of the License Exception TSR paragraph, because these ECCN subparagraphs are listed on the Wassenaar Arrangement’s Sensitive List.

ECCN 6D003 is amended by:

Adding two new paragraphs 6D003.f.3 and f.4 to control ‘‘software’’ and ‘‘source code,’’ specially designed for ‘‘real time processing’’ of electromagnetic data using underwater electromagnetic receivers specified by 6A006.e, because this source code and software is essential for the use of Underwater ElectroMagnetic Receivers (UEMR).
Adding the phrase ‘‘designed to be’’ between ‘‘programs’’ and ‘‘hosted’’ in paragraph 6D003.h.1 to clarify that software to be exported is controlled not only when it has been loaded onto a general purpose computer, but also prior to loading onto such a computer.

ECCN 6E001 is amended by Revising the Heading by removing the reference to 6A018 (because ECCN 6A018 was removed from the CCL on July 30, 2004 and adding a missing closing parenthetical to the end of the Heading; and Revising paragraph 4 of License Exception TSR by replacing 6A001.a.1.b.1 with 6A001.a.1.b, and adding 6A001.a.1.e, a.2.d; 6A002.a.1.a, a.1.b, a.2.a, a.2.b, a.3, b, and c; 6A003.b.3, b.4; 6A004.c and d; 6A005.a.1; 6A006.a.2, c.1, d, e, g, and h; 6A008.d, h, and k. These revisions are made to conform to the Wassenaar Arrangement’s Sensitive List.

ECCN 6E002 is amended by:

Revising the Heading by removing the reference to 6A018 (because ECCN 6A018 was removed from the CCL on July 30, 2004.
Revising paragraph 3 of License Exception TSR by replacing the word ‘‘development’’ with ‘‘production’’ to correct this paragraph, replace 6A001.a.1.b.1 with 6A001.a.1.b, moving 6A001.a.2.c to paragraph (b) of this paragraph, adding 6A002.a.3, 6A002.b, 6A002.c, 6A003.b.3, 6A003.b.4, 6A004.c, 6A004.d, 6A005.a.1, 6A006.a.2, 6A006.c.1, 6A006.d, 6A006.e, 6A006.g, 6A006.h, 6A008.d, 6A008.h, 6A008.k, 6A008.l.3, 6B008, replacing 6A001.a.2.e with 6A001.a.2.c in paragraph (b) of this paragraph, and removing paragraph (c) of this paragraph 3. These revisions are made to conform to the Wassenaar Arrangement’s Sensitive List.

ECCN 6E003 is amended by adding the phrase ‘‘an ‘optical thickness’’’ between ‘‘achieve’’ and ‘‘uniformity’’ in paragraph 6E003.d.1 to add clarity to the parameter, as well as adding a technical note to this paragraph to define ‘optical thickness.’

Category 7 - Navigation and Avionics

ECCN 7A001 is amended by:

Adding the phrase ‘‘but less than or equal to 100 g’’ after ‘‘15g’’ in 7A001.a.2 for linear accelerometers, to prevent an overlap of control between 7A001 and 7A002.
Adding a note for 7A001.a.1 and a.2 to exclude accelerometers limited to measuring only vibration or shock.

ECCN 7A002 is amended by:

Adding new parameters to control gyros or angular rate sensors in 7A002.a and .b to address an overlap of controls between 7A001 and 7A002.
Adding a new Note for 7A002.a.2.b to exclude ‘spinning mass gyros’ from 7A002 controls.

ECCN 7A003 is amended by removing the phrase ‘‘and specially designed components therefor’’ from 7A003.d, because this phrase is redundant. The specially designed components of concern are the accelerometers and gyros that are already controlled in the text of 7A003.d.

ECCN 7E004 is amended by:

Removing the phrase ‘‘Raster-type head-up displays or’’ from 7E004.a.3, because cathode ray tube and related raster scanning technology is outdated and no longer represents the standard for display technology.
Removing and reserving specified inertial navigation systems or gyro-astro compasses in 7E004.a.4, because this technology is covered by ECCNs 7E001 and 7E002.

Savings Clause

Shipments of items removed from license exception eligibility or eligibility for export without a license as a result of this regulatory action that were on dock for loading, on lighter, laden aboard an exporting carrier, or en route aboard a carrier to a port of export, on May 20, 2011, pursuant to actual orders for export to a foreign destination, may proceed to that destination under the previous license exception eligibility or without a license so long as they have been exported from the U.S. before July 19, 2011. Any such items not actually exported before midnight, on July 19, 2011 require a license in accordance with this regulation.

See future issues of ITT for additional details on the Wassenaar changes being implemented by BIS.

(See ITT’s Online Archives or 05/20/11 news, 11052022, BP summary announcing the publication of BIS’ final rule.

See ITT’s Online Archives or 05/23/11, 05/24/11, and 05/25/11 news, 11052305, 11052403, and 11052514, for Parts I-III of BP’s multi-part series of summaries.)

(BIS final rule, D/N 110124056-1119-01, FR Pub 05/20/11)