US continues national emergency over export control regulations

US President Trump has issued a notice in the Federal Register that the national emergency declared in 2001 over the expiration of the Export Administration Act 1979 (‘EAA’) will be extended for another year (13 August).

The national emergency was established because of the ‘unusual and extraordinary threat to national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States’ due to the expiry of the Act, which has not been renewed by Congress. The EAA established legal authority for the President to control US exports for national security or foreign policy reasons. It also implemented dual-use controls, which are now maintained under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (‘IEEPA’).

The US’s process of export control reform began in 2009. Major goals include a rationalisation of trade in controlled items, moving certain items from the US Munitions List (‘USML’) to the less restrictive Commerce Control List (‘CCL’), and establishing a single export licensing and enforcement agency.

‘In considering the future of the U.S. export control system, Congress may weigh the merits of a unified export control system – a chief goal of President Obama’s proposal – or the continuation of the present bifurcated system by reauthorizing the EAA or enacting replacement legislation. In doing so, Congress may debate the record of the present dual-use system maintained by emergency authority, the aims and effectiveness of the present nonproliferation control regimes, the maintenance of the defense industrial base, and the balance between maintaining economic competitiveness and preserving national security,’ say Ian Fergusson and Paul Kerr in their May 2018 paper on the US Export Control System and the Export Control Reform Initiative.

The Notice in the Federal Register can be found here:

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-08-13/pdf/2018-17465.pdf