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

In response to the Russian Federation's (Russia's) ongoing aggression against Ukraine, as substantially enabled by Belarus, the Department of Commerce is expanding and strengthening the existing sanctions against Russia and Belarus, including the scope of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR)'s Russian and Belarusian industry sector sanctions and `luxury goods' sanctions. This rule also refines existing export controls on Russia and Belarus. The Department of Commerce is taking these actions to enhance the effectiveness of its controls on both countries and to better align them with those implemented by U.S. allies and partners.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) maintains, as part of its Export Administration Regulations (EAR), the Commerce Control List (CCL), which identifies certain items subject to Department of Commerce jurisdiction. During the December 2021 Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies (WA) Plenary meeting, Participating States of the WA (Participating State) made certain decisions affecting the WA control lists, which BIS is now implementing via amendments to the CCL. On August 15, 2022, BIS published a final rule that implemented some of these decisions by adding to the CCL four technologies that met the criteria for emerging or foundational technologies under Section 1758 of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (ECRA). This final rule implements the remaining controls agreed to during the December 2021 WA Plenary meeting by revising the CCL, as well as certain EAR provisions, including License Exception Adjusted Peak Performance (APP). This final rule also makes corrections to align the scope of Significant Item (SI) license requirements throughout the EAR and makes a revision to License Exception Strategic Trade Authorization (STA).

In this rule, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding six entities to the Entity List, under the destination of the People's Republic of China (China). These six 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.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is announcing a two- day hybrid (in-person and virtual) conference with industry and other experts from academia on Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology (hereinafter, the BCI conference). This document describes the purpose and scope of the BCI conference and the procedures for attending or requesting to speak. In an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) published on October 26, 2021, BIS requested input from the public and industry concerning the potential uses of BCI technology, particularly with respect to its impact on U.S. national security. While the comments submitted in response to the ANPRM increased BIS's understanding of BCI technology, the BCI conference is intended to further both BIS's and the public's understanding of the current status of BCI technology and anticipated future developments in research and applications.

In this rule, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding seven entities to the Entity List. These seven entities, listed under the destination of Iran, have been determined by the U.S. Government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States for contributing to Russia's military and defense industrial base. They are being added to the Entity List with application of the Russia/Belarus-Military End User Foreign Direct Product rule.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) publishes this final rule to amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to reflect decisions made at the November 2021 and March 2022 Australia Group (AG) Virtual Implementation Meetings and the AG Plenary Meeting held in July 2022. The amendments include revisions to certain Export Control Classification Numbers to clarify the controls on genetic elements and genetically modified organisms and the scope of the exclusion that applies to medical isolators ``specially designed'' for barrier nursing or transportation of infected patients; and makes clarifications by adding four naturally occurring, dual-use marine toxins (specifically, brevetoxins, gonyautoxins, nodularins and palytoxin) and removing cholera toxin. The addition of these four toxins is consistent with Section 1758 of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (ECRA) regarding emerging and foundational technologies. Finally, this rule also includes amendments to reflect the AG Plenary updates to the nomenclature of certain bacteria and fungi, and the clarification of the definition of ``disinfected'' as it applies to certain biological equipment.

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.