President Barack Obama’s administration unveiled on Wednesday final changes to export-control rules for four categories of military equipment, including items used in Navy ships and ground vehicles.
This marks the second time the administration–as part of its four-year-old Export Control Reform Initiative–has kicked off the final process of moving less-sensitive equipment from the State Department’s U.S. Munitions List to the Commerce Department’s more-flexible Commerce Control List. The reform effort, welcomed by industry, is intended to update the United States’ Cold War-era export system to allow U.S. manufacturers to more easily sell some munitions abroad that have both military and commercial applications. Officials in the Departments of Defense, State, and Commerce have been reviewing the two export lists since 2009.
The State Department, in a statement Wednesday, said the export-control reforms “will allow the U.S. government to better focus on controlling the export of the more sensitive technologies that remain on the U.S. Munitions List while streamlining controlled exports of less sensitive defense-related items to U.S. allies and partners around the world, which will enhance interoperability with allies and contribute to the health and competitiveness of the U.S. defense industrial base, a national security imperative.”
The Commerce and State department published new final rules in the Federal Register on Wednesday that move some less-sensitive items within four categories of the U.S. Munitions List to the Commerce Control List. They fall under Categories VI (Vessels of War and Special Naval Equipment), VII (Ground Vehicles), XIII (Materials and Miscellaneous Articles), and XX (Submersible Vessels and Related Articles).
The revised categories will go into effect 180 days after being published in the Federal Register, which is Jan. 6, 2014. That delay is given to allow companies and suppliers time to adapt their practices to jibe with the new controls.
Now, following the changes published Wednesday, eight of 21 U.S. Munitions List categories have been rejiggered as part of the export-control-reform effort. In April, the administration published changes to the munitions-list Categories VIII (Aircraft and Related Articles), XVII (Classified Articles, Technical Data, and Defense Services Not Otherwise Enumerated) and XII (Articles, Technical Data and Defense Services Not Otherwise Enumerated), and added Category XIX (Gas Turbine Engines and Associated Equipment). (Defense Daily, April 17). Those changes will go into effect on Oct. 15.
“Work on the remaining categories continues,” the State Department said. “When ready, they will be similarly notified and published over the coming months.”