On Monday July 6, 2009, the US Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) revised its Export Administration Regulations to reflect decisions taken at the 2008 Australia Group intercessional decisions recommended at a meeting held on October 8-9, 2008.

The new regulation, effective July 6, 2009, expands Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) 2B350 on the Commerce Control List (CCL) by revising the controls on valves described in ECCN 2B350.g to include any such valves (including casings or preformed casing liners designed for such valves) that are made from any of the following ceramic materials:

(1) Silicon carbide with a purity of 80 percent or more by weight;

(2) aluminum oxide (alumina) with a purity of 99.9 percent or more by weight; or

(3) zirconium oxide (zirconia).

Valve manufacturers and exporters should check their product control matrices to make sure that they do not produce or export valves, casings or preformed casing liners designed for such valves and if they do, to put an immediate halt to any further exports to Country Group CB2 (See column CB2 of the attached Commerce Country Chart by clicking here) unless they obtain a license from BIS. They should also secure technology related to the development, manufacture and use of such valves, casings and preformed casing liners.

The rule also:

1) amends ECCN 2B351, which controls certain toxic gas monitoring systems, to specify the types of dedicated detecting components therefore that are controlled under this ECCN (i.e., detectors, sensor devices, and replaceable sensor cartridges).

2) adds a new ECCN 2D351 to control dedicated software for toxic gas monitoring systems and their dedicated detecting components controlled under ECCN 2B351. Software controlled under this new ECCN also requires a license for destinations indicated under CB Column 2.

3) amends ECCN 2B352 by revising the controls on cross (tangential) flow filtration equipment to specifically identify any such equipment using disposable or single-use filtration components as subject to control.

4) amends Supplement No. 2 to Part 745 of the EAR (titled “States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling, and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction”) by adding Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Iraq, and Lebanon, which became States Parties to the CWC. As a result of this change, the CW (Chemical Weapons) license requirements and policies that apply to these countries now conform with those applicable to other CWC States Parties, as described in Section 742.18 of the EAR. However, items controlled for Chemical Weapons reasons under the EAR continue to require a license for export or reexport to Iraq, or for transfer within Iraq.

Please check your products to determine if any of these changes affects your export compliance program or controls.

As usual, although effective July 6th, the new regulation has a savings clause: Shipments of items removed from eligibility for export or reexport under a license exception or without a license (i.e., NLR) as a result of the new regulation that “were on dock for loading, on lighter, laden aboard an exporting carrier, or en route aboard a carrier to a port of export, on August 5, 2009, pursuant to actual orders for export or reexport to a foreign destination, may proceed to that destination under the previously applicable license exception or without a license (NLR) so long as they are exported or reexported before August 20, 2009.”

Kay C. Georgi
georgi.kay@arentfox.com
202.857.6293