Industry and Security Bureau July 8, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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 April 2008 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 avian influenza viruses to replace the description of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) with new HPAI language that is based on the definition currently used by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). This rule also amends the provisions in the EAR that describe the advance notification and annual report requirements for exports of Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) Schedule 1 chemicals and the End-Use Certificate requirement for certain exports of CWC Schedule 3 chemicals by updating the fax number and address for submitting these documents to BIS. Finally, this rule amends the list of countries that currently are States Parties to the CWC by adding ``Congo (Republic of the)'' and ``Guinea-Bissau,''which recently became States Parties. As a result of this change, the CW (Chemical Weapons) license requirements and policies in the EAR that apply to these two countries now conform with those applicable to other CWC States Parties.