Bureau of Industry and Security December 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on the impact that implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, through the Chemical Weapons Convention Implementation Act of 1998 and the Chemical Weapons Convention Regulations, has had on commercial activities involving ``Schedule 1'' chemicals during calendar year 2022. The purpose of this notice of inquiry is to collect information to assist BIS in its preparation of the annual certification to the Congress on whether the legitimate commercial activities and interests of chemical, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical firms are harmed by such implementation. This certification is required under Condition 9 of Senate Resolution 75 (April 24, 1997), in which the Senate gave its advice and consent to the ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Department of Commerce is amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding thirty-six entities to the Entity List. These entities have been determined by the U.S. Government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States and will be listed on the Entity List under the destinations of the People's Republic of China (China) and Japan. This rule also revises three entries on the Entity List under the destination of China. Lastly, as a conforming change to the addition of one entity to the Entity List under the destination of China, this rule removes this entity from the Unverified List (UVL). The entity is being added to the Entity List for reasons not related to the prevention of an end-use check and is removed from the UVL for consistency with the existing policy of not listing an entity on more than one of these lists at the same time.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by removing 9 persons from the Unverified List (UVL) and adding them to the Entity List, all under the destination of Russia. BIS has been unable to verify the bona fides of all 9 persons being removed from the UVL and added to the Entity List, due to the foreign government's prevention of timely end-use checks. BIS is also amending the EAR by removing 27 persons from the UVL, one under the destination of Pakistan and 26 under the destination of China, because BIS was able to verify their bona fides.

The Department of Commerce is amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding twenty-four entities under twenty-six entries to the Entity List. These entities have been determined by the U.S. Government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States and will be listed on the Entity List under the destinations of Latvia, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). In addition, this final rule removes from the Entity List one entity listed in three entries under Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E.

On October 13, 2022, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published the interim final rule Implementation of Additional Export Controls: Certain Advanced Computing and Semiconductor Manufacturing Items; Supercomputer and Semiconductor End Use; Entity List Modification. This document extends the deadline for written comments to January 31, 2023. This extension is being made to allow for commenters to have additional time to review the interim final rule and to benefit from the significant amount of public outreach that BIS is conducting on the rule in preparing their comments.