Departments of State, Commerce Propose Rules to Shift Fire Control Systems to Commerce Control List
The Obama administration unveiled its proposal to transfer export restrictions on fire control and related equipment from the State Department to the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security as part of the administration’s Export Control Reform campaign. The State Department (here) and BIS (here) proposed rules, which the Defense Department also helped to formulate, would transfer control of items under U.S. Munitions List Category XII (Fire Control, Range Finder, Optical and Guidance and Control Equipment) to the Commerce Control List. Both agencies will accept comments on the changes until July 6.
The ECR proposed rules are the first since mid-2013, with State and Commerce instead focusing on finalizing already published proposals (here). State is reporting a drastic reduction in license processing as a result (see 1504130021).
The proposals would give Commerce control over the transferred items by creating new Export Control Classification Numbers in the Export Administration Regulations. The proposed rules would revise the following ECCNs:
- 0A987: optical sighting devices for firearms
- 2A984: concealed object detection equipment
- 6A004: optical equipment and components
- 6A005: lasers, components, and optical equipment
- 6A007: gravity meters and gravity gradiometers
- 6A008: radar systems, equipment, and assemblies
- 6A107: gravity meters and gravity gradiometers
- 7A001: accelerometers
- 7A002: gyros or angular rate sensors
- 7A003: inertial measurement equipment or systems
- 7A005: Global Navigation Satellite Systems receiving equipment
- 7A101: accelerometers
- 7A102: gyros
The proposal also would shift control to the Commerce Control List for some night vision sensors and cameras that are widely used in civilian industry. The rules would also specify that focal plane arrays already controlled on the EAR “include certain focal plane arrays in a ‘permanent encapsulated sensor assembly.’”
Commerce said administration officials passed on transferring any USML items in this proposal that met either of the following new criterion:
- inherently military and otherwise warrant control on the USML
- if it is a type common to non-military equipment, possess parameters or characteristics that provide a critical military or intelligence advantage to the United States, and that are almost exclusively available from the United States.
Stakeholders can comment on the proposal through http://www.regulations.gov, docket number BIS-2015-0016.
(Federal Register 05/05/2015)