On February 12, 2021, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced that was implementing restrictions on the export of “sensitive items” to Burma’s Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Home Affairs, armed forces, and security services in response to the Burmese military’s February 1 coup to overthrow the civilian government of Burma. Effective immediately, BIS “will apply a presumption of denial for items requiring a license for export and reexport to these select Burmese government departments and agencies. In addition, BIS is revoking certain previously issued licenses to these departments and agencies which have not been fully utilized. BIS also will suspend certain license exceptions previously available to Burma as a result of its current Country Group placement under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), including Shipments to Country Group B countries (GBS) and Technology and Software under restriction (TSR).”
BIS is considering further actions, including: (i) possible Entity List additions, (ii) adding Burma to the list of countries subject to the EAR’s military end use and end user (MEU) and military intelligence end use and end user (MIEU) restrictions, and (iii) downgrading Burma’s Country Group status in the EAR. These actions are directly related to the issuance of an Executive Order on February 10, 2021, by President Joseph Biden; see Update of February 11, 2021.