Munitions List

Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Ellen Tauscher told business groups last month that updating the products covered by the U.S. Munitions List and the Commerce Control List (CCL) is her top priority in an ongoing review of export controls launched earlier this month by the White House, Inside U.S. Trade reports today:

Removing items from these two lists that no longer need to face export controls has long been a priority of business groups. In order to export defense articles on the Munitions List, or the dual-use items on the CCL, exporters must obtain licenses.

Scrubbing these two lists was the only priority specifically mentioned by Tauscher on Aug. 25 in a private meeting with the Coalition for Security and Competitiveness (CSC), a leading industry group on export controls, according to sources. Tauscher also met separately with the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), which is a member of the CSC, the next day, sources said.

Sources said that Tauscher emphasized that this is a security review but the views of business associations are important. The process for public comment has not been decided on yet, she said.

Concerning the overall administration review, Tauscher made clear that the administration has not yet set a hard deadline for the end of the review, has not yet refined the scope of the review, and has not yet decided whether to seek legislative changes for some aspects of export control reform that cannot be done administratively, according to these sources.

However, inter-agency meetings have already occurred after the review was announced on Aug. 13, sources said. Tauscher said she would prefer a multistage approach.

“The review would put in place a process for regularly scrubbing the lists and the first scrub would take the longest,” one source said.