IT Export License System

A single information technology system allowing officials from the Defense, Commerce and State departments to process export licenses using the same platform will go online in a matter of weeks, Inside U.S. Trade reports this morning.

Assistant Commerce Secretary for Export Administration Kevin Wolf told a Sept. 11 meeting of the Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee (RPTAC) that the system will go into effect in its "initial operating capability" in the next month or so.

Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the State Department will all be using DOD's USXPorts system, which has been modified to allow all agencies to access it, Wolf said.

He said the State Department agencies that will participate will be the Directorate of Defense Trade (DDTC), which administers the United States Munitions List (USML) and the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN), which has authority over dual-use items. For example, ISN includes the Office of Conventional Arms Threat Reduction that guards against proliferation of advanced conventional weapons and related dual-use items, according to the ISN website.

Wolf said he expected "some growing pains" as agencies begin to use the system, but argued that it will create new efficiencies because it will greatly facilitate the electronic sharing of data that was not possible under the previous arrangement when DOD, State and Commerce used three different systems. He said the system will have a more robust, modern server and allows the addition of modules as export control licensing processes evolve.

Wolf said officials in DDTC's aircraft group told him the new system will let them shave off a week from their license reviews. He said any efficiencies may not be apparent in individual licensing decisions, but represent a small victory for the export control initiative.

A single IT system for processing export licenses is one of four key elements of the Obama administration's export control reform effort, which also proposes a single enforcement agency, a single export control list and a single agency in charge of export controls.

Wolf said the enforcement coordination agency, known as the Export Enforcement Coordination Center, has greatly expanded efficiency on enforcement issues due to the information sharing it promotes among agencies. The enforcement center was officially opened in March, and officials were spending the past months to work out exactly how to implement the center's mandates for enhancing and coordinating export control enforcement among 18 agencies in eight departments (Inside U.S. Trade, May 18).

He said the single list and the single agency remains the "ultimate objective" of the export control reform initiative, but noted that the creation of the single agency depends on legislation and on the outcome of the presidential election.

Wolf drove home the point that the current review of the export control lists, which involves a revision of USML categories to determine which items can be moved to the less-stringent Commerce Control List (CCL), provides the preparation for these ultimate goals.

The cooperation required by the five export control agencies working together daily in one room in developing reform-relevant regulations and reviewing USML categories has “culturally” led them to see themselves as part of the same administration, Wolf said. This cooperation has let each agency learn more about the other agencies' export control rules and about the positions of industry, he said.

Wolf said he sees this increased cooperation as one of the reasons that there have not been many disputed commodity jurisdiction (CJ) cases or license disputes that have to be elevated to the assistant secretary level for resolution.