[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 194 (Tuesday, October 6, 2020)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 63007-63009]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-21815]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Bureau of Industry and Security

15 CFR Part 742

[Docket No. 200624-0168]
RIN 0694-AH70


Amendment to Licensing Policy for Items Controlled for Crime 
Control Reasons

AGENCY: Bureau of Industry and Security, Commerce.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is amending the 
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by revising, in part, the 
licensing policy for items controlled for crime control (CC) reasons, 
which is designed to promote respect for human rights throughout the 
world. BIS also is amending the EAR to provide that, except for items 
controlled for short supply reasons, it will consider human rights 
concerns when reviewing license applications for items controlled for 
reasons other than CC. This revision is necessary to clarify to the 
exporting community that licensing decisions are based in part upon 
U.S. Government

[[Page 63008]]

assessments of whether items may be used to engage in, or enable 
violations or abuses of, human rights including those involving 
censorship, surveillance, detention, or excessive use of force.

DATES: This rule is effective October 6, 2020.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sheila Quarterman, Regulatory Policy 
Division, Office of Exporter Services, at email [email protected] or by 
phone at (202) 482-2440; and refer to RIN-0694-AH70.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Items on the Commerce Control List (CCL), Supplement No. 1 to part 
774 of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), are listed for 
multilateral and unilateral control reasons to serve U.S. national 
security and foreign policy interests. Under the EAR, multiple criteria 
related to those multilateral and unilateral reasons for control may be 
considered in reviewing license applications for the export or reexport 
of items. Under the EAR, multilateral reasons for control include 
chemical and biological (CB), nuclear nonproliferation (NP), national 
security (NS), and missile technology (MT) reasons. Unilateral reasons 
for control include regional stability (RS), crime control (CC) and 
anti-terrorism (AT) reasons, as well as reasons related to exports of 
firearms to Organization of American States member countries (FC) and 
United Nations embargoes (UN). Controls for United Nations Security 
Council purposes are identified by the abbreviation ``UN'' in the 
applicable CCL entries. The ``UN'' reason for control is described in 
Sec.  746.2(b) of the EAR.
    To date, Sec.  742.7 of the EAR has addressed the licensing of CC 
equipment and related technology and software (CC-controlled items). 
The licensing requirement set forth in paragraph (a) and the licensing 
policy set forth in paragraph (b) of Sec.  742.7 were created to 
promote the observance of human rights throughout the world. The impact 
of an export or reexport based on human rights concerns has been a 
consideration for CC-controlled items. Under the licensing policy set 
forth in paragraph (b) of Sec.  742.7, BIS will generally consider 
license applications favorably on a case-by-case basis unless there is 
civil disorder in the country or region of destination or unless there 
is evidence that the government of the importing country may have 
violated internationally recognized human rights.
    In this final rule, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is 
amending the EAR by revising the licensing policy of paragraph (b) of 
Sec.  742.7. With these amendments, BIS will both expand its licensing 
policy as it applies to CC-controlled items and expand its 
consideration of human rights beyond CC-controlled items to include 
those items controlled for any other reason, with the exception of 
items controlled for short supply. Therefore, this final rule amends 
Sec.  742.7 by revising paragraph (b), in part, to specify in new 
subparagraph (b)(1) that BIS generally will consider favorably, on a 
case-by-case basis, license applications for a CC-controlled item 
unless there is civil disorder in the country or region of destination 
or if BIS assesses that there is a risk that the items will be used in 
a violation or abuse of human rights. This revision is necessary to 
clarify to the exporting community that licensing decisions are based 
in part upon U.S. Government assessments about whether CC-controlled 
items may be used to engage in or enable violations or abuses of human 
rights including through violations and abuses involving censorship, 
surveillance, detention, or excessive use of force.
    This final rule also amends Sec.  742.7 by adding a new 
subparagraph (b)(2) to make clear that BIS will consider the licensing 
policy set forth in new subparagraph (b)(1) when reviewing items 
controlled for reasons other than CC with the exception of items 
controlled for short supply. This revision furthers the foreign policy 
interests of the United States pertaining to the prevention of human 
rights violations and abuses by helping to ensure that items controlled 
for reasons other than CC are not exported or reexported in support of 
human rights violations or abuses. This revision is necessary to 
prevent items currently controlled for reasons other than CC, including 
reasons related to certain telecommunications and information security 
and sensors, from being used to engage in or enable the violation or 
abuse of human rights. As revised, this licensing policy will enable 
BIS and other reviewing agencies to consider (1) violations or abuses 
of human rights by individuals or entities other than the government of 
the importing country and (2) abuses of human rights by the government 
in addition to violations of internationally recognized human rights.

Export Control Reform Act of 2018

    On August 13, 2018, the President signed into law the John S. 
McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, which 
included the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (ECRA), 50 U.S.C. 
Sections 4801-4852. ECRA provides the legal basis for BIS's principal 
authorities and serves as the authority under which BIS issues this 
rule.

Rulemaking Requirements

    1. Executive Orders 13563 and 12866 direct agencies to assess all 
costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if 
regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize 
net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public 
health and safety effects, distribute impacts, and equity). Executive 
Order 13563 emphasizes the importance of quantifying both costs and 
benefits, of reducing costs, of harmonizing rules, and of promoting 
flexibility. This final rule has been designated to be not significant 
for purposes of Executive Order 12866. The requirements of Executive 
Order 13771 do not apply because the rule is not significant.
    2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person is 
required to respond to, nor is subject to a penalty for failure to 
comply with a collection of information, subject to the requirements of 
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) (PRA), 
unless that collection of information displays a currently valid OMB 
control number. This rule affects an approved collection, the 
Simplified Network Application Processing (control number 0694-0088), 
which carries a burden hour estimate of 43 minutes, including the time 
necessary to submit license applications, among other things, as well 
as miscellaneous and other recordkeeping activities that account for 12 
minutes per submission. The amendment to the licensing review policy 
for items controlled for crime control reasons, which typically are 
licensable, is not expected to significantly increase the number of 
submissions under these collections.
    3. This rule does not contain policies associated with Federalism 
as that term is defined under Executive Order 13132.
    4. Pursuant to section 1762 of ECRA (see 50 U.S.C. 4821), this 
action is exempt from the Administrative Procedure Act requirements 
(under 5 U.S.C. 553) for notice of proposed rulemaking, opportunity for 
public participation, and delay in effective date.
    5. Because a notice of proposed rulemaking and an opportunity for 
public comment are not required to be given for this rule by 5 U.S.C. 
553, or by any other law, the analytical

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requirements of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 601, et seq., 
are not applicable. Accordingly, no regulatory flexibility analysis is 
required, and none has been prepared.

List of Subjects in 15 CFR Part 742

    Exports, Terrorism.

    Accordingly, part 742 of the Export Administration Regulations (15 
CFR parts 730-774) is amended as follows:

PART 742--[AMENDED]

0
1. The authority citation for part 742 continues to read as follows:

    Authority:  50 U.S.C. 4801-4852; 50 U.S.C. 4601 et seq.; 50 
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.; 22 U.S.C. 3201 et seq.; 42 U.S.C. 2139a; 22 
U.S.C. 7201 et seq.; 22 U.S.C. 7210; Sec. 1503, Pub. L. 108-11, 117 
Stat. 559; E.O. 12058, 43 FR 20947, 3 CFR, 1978 Comp., p. 179; E.O. 
12851, 58 FR 33181, 3 CFR, 1993 Comp., p. 608; E.O. 12938, 59 FR 
59099, 3 CFR, 1994 Comp., p. 950; E.O. 13026, 61 FR 58767, 3 CFR, 
1996 Comp., p. 228; E.O. 13222, 66 FR 44025, 3 CFR, 2001 Comp., p. 
783; Presidential Determination 2003-23, 68 FR 26459, 3 CFR, 2004 
Comp., p. 320; Notice of November 12, 2019, 84 FR 61817 (November 
13, 2019).


0
2. Amend Sec.  742.7 by revising paragraph (b) to read as follows:


Sec.  742.7   Crime control and detection.

* * * * *
    (b) Licensing policy. (1) Applications for items controlled under 
this section will generally be considered favorably on a case-by-case 
basis, unless there is civil disorder in the country or region or 
unless there is a risk that the items will be used to violate or abuse 
human rights. The judicious use of export controls is intended to deter 
human rights violations and abuses, distance the United States from 
such violations and abuses, and avoid contributing to civil disorder in 
a country or region.
    (2) BIS will review license applications in accordance with the 
licensing policy in paragraph (b)(1) of this section for items that are 
not controlled under this section but that require a license pursuant 
to another section for any reason other than short supply and could be 
used by the recipient Government or other end user specifically to 
violate or abuse human rights.
* * * * *

Matthew S. Borman,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Export Administration.
[FR Doc. 2020-21815 Filed 10-5-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-33-P