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U.S. Department of Commerce Tightens Restrictions on Technology Exports.

Posted onApril 29, 2020

On 27th April, 2020 the U.S. Department of Commerce announced new export controls aimed at preventing entities in China, Russia, and Venezuela from obtaining U.S. technology that could be used in development of weapons, military aircraft, or surveillance technology through civilian supply chains, or through military procurement channels under the guise of civilian use. U.S. export law has extraterritorial effect, so the controls apply to U.S. origin goods, as well as foreign made goods with U.S. content.

In brief, the changes are as follows:

Expansion of Military End Use/User Controls (MEU) Expands MEU license requirements controls under EAR § 744.21 on China, Russia, and Venezuela to cover military end-users in all three countries, as well as items such as semiconductor equipment, sensors, and other technologies sought for military end use or by military end-users in these countries. 'Military end user' means the national armed services (army, navy, marine, air force, or coast guard), as well as the national guard and national police, government intelligence or reconnaissance organisations, or any person or entity whose actions or functions are intended to support 'military end uses'. This expansion will require increased diligence with respect to the evaluation of end users in China, particularly in view of China’s widespread civil-military integration.
Removal of License Exception Civil End Users (CIV) Removes a license exception for exports, reexports, or transfers (in-country) to civilian end-users in countries of national security concern for National Security- (NS) controlled items.
Elimination of License Exception Additional Permissive Reexports (APR) Provisions Proposes to eliminate certain provisions of a license exception for partner countries involving the reexport of NS-controlled items to countries of national security concern to ensure consistent reviews of exports and reexports of U.S. items.

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