Export Compliance Updates: Time to Launch Your Concerns About Exemptions–Let’s Raise the Amount for Spare Parts to $1500 under 123.16 (b)(2)!

Comment on Redundant or Ambiguous ITAR Exemptions

On July 26, 2019, the Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) published a notice (84 FR 36040) requesting comments on how to consolidate and clarify exemptions found throughout the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

Specifically, DDTC is seeking comments on the following questions for exemptions:

  1. Which exemptions, if any, are redundant or could be consolidated?
  2. Which exemptions, if any, contain language that introduces significant ambiguity or hinders the exemption’s intended use? 123.16 (b)(2) for components or spare parts under $500 is no longer feasible–$1500 makes much more sense.

This is an important opportunity to contribute to streamlined and more usable ITAR exemptions.  Comments may be submitted through August 26, 2019 at www.regulations.gov (Docket No. DOS–2019–0022), by email to DDTCPublicComments@state.gov, or by mail.  Refer to the Federal Register Notice for additional information.

ACES Certificate Decommission

On July 17, 2019, DDTC announced the phase-out of ACES Certificates used to access the DTrade export licensing system:

ACES Certificates are required to access the DTrade defense export licensing system.  Per GSA instruction, all ACES Certificates must expire before August 1st, 2020.  The ACES provider, IdenTrust, will continue to issue certificates, but they must be posted with an expiration date of July 31st, 2020 or earlier.  If you purchase an ACES certificate after July 31st, 2019, the validity period will be truncated to less than a full year.

DTrade’s replacement by the Defense Export Control and Compliance System (DECCS) application has been under development, with a current status of “Will Launch in 2019.”

DDTC Registration Becomes Registration Compliance & Analysis (RCA) 

DDTC also posted the following announcement renaming the Registration division of Defense Trade Controls Compliance:

Effective July 15, 2019, the DTCC Registration division’s name will change to the Registration Compliance & Analysis (RCA) division.  There is no change to Registration organization structure.  All registration letters issued on and after July 15, 2019 will reflect the RCA division.  All active registration letters issued prior to July 15, 2019, will remain valid and no changes are required.  Updates to the DDTC Website will also occur on July 15, 2019, to be consistent with DTCC Registration name change.

While the DDTC street addresses remains the same, any correspondence with the former Registration Division should be updated to reflect the new name.