Blog

For years, we’ve been telling our clients that one of the primary reasons for export control is U.S. national security. The recent events in Boston give testimony to this priority. Despite what some would have us believe, there are countries and factions of people who want to harm the citizens of the United States, and they’ll even use our own products and technologies to help achieve these despicable goals.

Last week, President Obama’s Export Control Reform (ECR) efforts took a big step forward with a final published rule that, once implemented, will begin moving items and technologies from ITAR to EAR controls. The first categories of USML items affected by this rule are: Category VIII (Aircraft and Related Articles), Category XVII (Classified Articles), and XII (Articles, Technical Data and Defense Services Not Elsewhere Enumerated).

While most of us were sipping egg nog and wrapping presents last month, Congress took steps to help move forward with some of President Obama's export control reform initiatives -- specifically regarding commercial communications satellites.

Now that the presidential election is behind us, the big question in the trade compliance community seems to be: Will President Obama’s export control reform efforts continue to move forward? We're still a long way from the end-goal, but it's promising to see some signs of progress.

What is considered ITAR? Historically, the answer to that question has been very far-reaching and intentionally broad. However, a new proposed definition could help change all of that.