On December 9, President Obama announced to a meeting of the President's Export Council that the Administration has released several new regulations and requests for comment related to export controls reform. The Administration has also launched a website for its export controls reform efforts. The site features a new compliance tool-a consolidated version of the screening lists maintained by the Department of Commerce, the State Department and the Treasury Department. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) issued a statement on December 9 lauding the administration's "progress in meeting the goals of better protecting national security while strengthening America's high technology sector and promoting job growth through increased exports." Berman also stressed that reform of the Export Administration Act should remain a priority in the 112th Congress.
On December 10, the Department of Commerce published two notices in the Federal Register. The first notice concerns a proposed rule to add a new license exception to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), which would "allow exports, reexports and transfers (in-country) of specified items to destinations that pose little risk of unauthorized use of those items." The second notice features a request from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) for public comments on "how the descriptions of items controlled on the Commerce Control List (CCL) of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) could be more clear and positive and "tiered" in a manner consistent with the control criteria the Administration has developed as part of the reform effort." The State Department will also reportedly be proposing a rule to revise U.S. Munitions List (USML) Category VII (pertaining to tanks and military vehicles) by applying tiered control criteria to tanks and military vehicles, as well as a rule to facilitate State's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) assessments of revisions needed for the other USML categories.
