By George W. Thompson
Slowly but surely, the State and Commerce Departments are completing their Export Control Reform Initiative revisions to the United States Munitions List. The most recent USML categories to undergo revision are XIV and XVIII, which cover, respectively, “toxicological agents, including chemical agents, biological agents, and associated equipment” and “directed energy weapons” (aka “really nasty stuff”.)
As a brief recap, Export Control Reform is a process for removing articles and technical data that pose a lower national security risk from the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to the Export Administration Regulations. These changes free up State Department resources to focus on items of more critical importance to U.S. military capabilities. Former ITAR items transferred to the EAR may be subject to less restrictive licensing requirements, depending on where they are placed on the Commerce Control List and their export destinations.
The changes also have the general intent of more sharply defining the items covered in each set of regulations and providing a clearer demarcation line between ITAR and EAR jurisdiction.
As amended, the USML lists those chemical agents and precursors, and biological agents, which remain subject to ITAR coverage.
Certain “test facilities, equipment for the destruction of chemical and biological agents, and tooling for production of” designated ITAR articles are now moved to the CCL, along with “equipment for the sample collection and decontamination or remediation of chemical agents and biological agents.” Riot control agents and dissemination equipment, and “military detection and protection ‘equipment’ for toxicological agents”, too, are now placed under the EAR. The items removed from the ITAR, and related software and technology, are now classified in new Export Control Classification Numbers 1A607, 1B607, 1C607, 1D607, and 1E607.
An interesting feature of the revised USML is that certain “antibodies, recombinant protective antigens, polynucleotides, biopolymers, or biocatalysts”, and vaccines, remain subject to coverage as long as they are “funded by a Department of Defense contract”. While DoD funding has long been a Commodity Jurisdiction factor used in determining whether a particular item is covered by the ITAR, it has not (to the best of my knowledge) previously been used as a dividing line in a USML paragraph.
The revised USML category XVIII now defines directed energy weapons within its ambit by their capabilities, and also refines the characteristics of specific types of equipment (such as lasers and particle beams) it covers. Production and testing tooling and equipment, and related software and technology, for such items have been removed to new ECCNs 6B619, 6D619 and 6E619.
Notwithstanding these changes, toxicological agents and directed energy weapons, and related equipment and technology, remain subject to very strict controls to keep them out of the hands of both movie villains and the real kind.
