To “further enhance defense industrial base cooperation and technology innovation with Australia and the United Kingdom,” the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) issued an interim final rule (“IFR”) on April 18, 2024 to ease various licensing requirements prescribed by the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) for exports, reexports, or transfers (in-country) to or within the two countries. The IFR, which takes effect April 19, 2024, bifurcates its amendments into “major” and “minor” policy changes, respectively, and essentially extends the same licensing treatment enjoyed by Canada under the EAR to Australia and the United Kingdom. The changes thus directly support the stated goals of the AUKUS Trilateral Security Partnership “to deepen diplomatic, security, and defense cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region,” while also indirectly facilitating general defense trade, innovation, and information and technology sharing between and among the AUKUS nations. Built upon longstanding and ongoing bilateral ties, AUKUS was established on September 15, 2021.
The most notable “major” policy change of the IFR is the removal of licensing requirements for national security column 1 (NS1), regional stability column 1 (RS1), and missile technology column 1 (MT1) reasons for control imposed on Australia and the United Kingdom in the Commerce Country Chart (see Supplement No. 1 to Part 738 of the EAR). Considering Australia and the United Kingdom are already not subject to national security column 2 (NS2) and regional stability column 2 (RS2) reasons for control, the IFR thus eliminates all Commerce Country Chart-based NS and RS controls for both countries. Correspondingly, certain provisions in Part 742 of the EAR specifying license requirements pursuant to NS, RS, and MT reasons will be removed for Australia and the United Kingdom, too.
Other noteworthy “major” policy changes of the IFR include the abolishment of licenses for “600 series” items destined to Australia or the United Kingdom, the elimination of licenses for many 9×515 satellite-related items destined to either AUKUS member, and the removal of military end-use and end-user-based license requirements for certain cameras, systems, or related components detailed in Part 744.9 of the EAR.
While the “major” policy changes thus broaden the alignment of controls on Australia and the United Kingdom with those in effect for Canada, most “minor” policy changes of the IFR simply update various clarifying phrases included in the EAR.
Perhaps the most notable “minor” policy change, though, is new text to be included in three license exceptions—Aircraft, Vessels and Spacecraft (AVS); Additional Permissive Reexports (APR); and Encryption Commodities, Software, and Technology (ENC)—explicitly expanding the applicability of all three for exports, reexports, and transfers (in-country) to Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
The IFR is effective on April 19, 2024. However, to ensure the export control revisions implemented by the IFR advance AUKUS objectives, BIS invites public comments on the impact of these changes, and welcomes comments for revisions, corrections, and clarifications too. Comments must be received by BIS no later than June 3, 2024, and should be filed using the Federal rulemaking portal (www.regulations.gov). The Docket ID No. for this IFR is BIS–2024–0019; commenters, however, should also reference RIN 0694–AJ58 in all comments.