Regulators Deemed Responsive

Chalk one up for exporters with proverbial pitchforks -- BIS is withdrawing its decidedly unpopular scheme to clamp down on deemed exports. Nearly six months after Under Secretary for Industry and Security David McCormick threw in the towel on one piece of the proposal, America's dual-use export regulators are tossing the whole idea overboard. It's an all-out victory for the private and public sector voices supporting reasonableness in export controls over persnickety, uninformed inspectors general.

(Today's notice "recognizes the significance of declarative assertion of affiliation over the mere geographical circumstances of birth." Sounds similar to the administration's immigration policy, don't you think?)

If you still can't get enough deemed export wonkishness (or are concerned by BIS claims of stepped-up enforcement in this area), then the newly-formed Deemed Export Advisory Committee (DEAC) may be for you.  I, for one, will be interested to see if this recent debate on deemed exports sufficiently sensitized universities to an extent that they will be willing to send a delegate to DC to represent their interests. A job for the Association of American Universities, perhaps?

UPDATE: Over at the blog of the Computing Research Association, they're dancing on the grave of the deceased proposal -- calling it "unjust and anti-democratic", which makes sense since they "weren't sure that a credible problem exist[ed]" in the first place.

UPDATE 2: No great loss if you skip the reaction of the Secrecy News blog at the Federation of American Scientists, but don't miss the comments section, where former White House staffer Gerald Epstein artfully dissects Commerce's interpretation of National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) 189.

Comments

[Michael Deal]

Now if only the Dept. of State, DDTC, would listen to reason. Given that State's definition of defense services in ITAR 120.9 is expressed in the disjuntive (as is the definition of defense technical data in 120.10) and can include the training or use of information in the public domain (as stated in the Hughes, Loral and Wedgetail and Sea Launch consent agreements with Boeing), there is once again a major inconsistency between how State and Commerce approach the subject of deemed exports. Given the prevalence of universities in defense R&D, this is going to lead to real Trouble.