Bureau of Industry and Security 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This rule amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to expand the availability of License Exceptions Temporary Imports, Exports, and Reexports (TMP) and Baggage (BAG) to allow for certain temporary exports and reexports of technology by U.S. persons to U.S. persons or their employees traveling or temporarily assigned abroad.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) maintains the Commerce Control List (CCL), which identifies items subject to Department of Commerce export controls. This final rule revises the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement changes made to the Wassenaar Arrangement's List of Dual Use Goods and Technologies (Wassenaar List), 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, or WA). The Wassenaar Arrangement advocates implementation of effective export controls on strategic items with the objective of improving regional and international security and stability. To harmonize with the changes to the Wassenaar List, this rule revises the EAR by amending certain entries that are controlled for national security reasons in Categories 1, 2, 3, 5 Part I (telecommunications), 6, 7, 8, and 9; and adding new entries to the Commerce Control List (CCL), amending EAR Definitions, as well as adding new definitions to the EAR, and adding a new Statement of Understanding on source code. The purpose of this final rule is to make the necessary changes to the CCL, definitions of terms used in the EAR, and Wassenaar reporting requirements to implement Wassenaar List revisions that were agreed upon in the December 2006 Wassenaar Arrangement Plenary Meeting. This rule also adds and expands unilateral U.S. export controls and national security export controls on certain items to make them consistent with the amendments made to implement the Wassenaar Arrangement's decisions. In addition, this rule removes the remaining references to ``Composite Theoretical Performance (CTP)'' and ``Millions of Theoretical Operations Per Second (MTOPS)'' in the EAR, which is consistent with agreements made by the Wassenaar Arrangement with regard to microprocessors.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

In response to the Government of Burma's continued repression of the democratic opposition in Burma, and consistent with Executive Order 13310 of July 28, 2003 and Executive Order 13448 of October 18, 2007, this final rule amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to move Burma into more restrictive country groupings and impose a license requirement for exports, reexports or transfers of most items subject to the EAR to persons listed in or designated pursuant to Executive Orders 13310 and 13448.

This proposed rule would require that export and reexport license applications, classification requests, encryption review requests, License Exception AGR notifications and related documents be submitted to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) via its Simplified Network Application Process (SNAP-R) system. This requirement would not apply to applications for Special Comprehensive Licenses or in certain situations in which BIS would authorize paper submissions.

In this final rule, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to add India as an eligible destination for exports, reexports and transfers under Authorization Validated End-User (VEU). BIS established Authorization VEU in a final rule published in the Federal Register.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is publishing this final rule to amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement the understandings reached at the June 2007 plenary meeting of the Australia Group (AG). This final rule amends the EAR to reflect changes to the AG ``Control List of Biological Agents'' that the countries participating in the AG adopted at the plenary meeting. Specifically, this rule revises the Commerce Control List (CCL) entry that controls animal pathogens on the AG ``Control List of Biological Agents'' by revising the listing for mycoplasma mycoides to include only the specific subspecies and strains of mycoplasma mycoides that are of most concern as the causative agents of disease in animals, i.e., Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides SC (small colony) and Mycoplasma capricolum subspecies capripneumoniae (``strain F38''). In addition, this rule makes conforming changes to the CCL entry that controls certain select agents not included on any of the AG Common Control Lists. This rule also amends the EAR to reflect the admission of Croatia to the Australia Group and updates the definition of ``Australia Group'' in the EAR by adding Croatia to the list of participating countries. In addition to the AG plenary meeting changes described above, this rule amends the EAR by revising the CCL entry that controls certain equipment capable of being used in handling biological materials. This rule revises a Technical Note in the CCL entry by updating the edition of the World Health Organization (WHO) ``Laboratory Biosafety Manual'' referenced therein to to identify the current edition of the manual. This WHO manual contains safety requirements for P3 or P4 (BL3, BL4, L3, L4) complete containment facilities. Finally, this rule amends the list of countries that currently are States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) by adding ``Barbados,'' which recently became a State Party. As a result of this change, the CW (Chemical Weapons) license requirements and policies in the EAR that apply to Barbados now conform with those applicable to other CWC States Parties. This rule also clarifies the scope of the entry for ``China'' on the list of CWC States Parties by revising the footnote to this entry to indicate that, for CWC purposes only, China includes ``Macau,'' as well as ``Hong Kong.''

This rule updates the Code of Federal Regulations legal authority citations for the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to include the citation to the President's Notice of August 15, 2007 Continuation of Emergency Regarding Export Control Regulations.