Export Administration Regulations


The Export Administration Regulations are a set of regulations found at . They are administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security, which is part of the US Commerce Department. In general, the EAR govern whether a person may export a thing from the U.S., reexport the thing from a foreign country, or transfer a thing from one person to another in a foreign country. The EAR apply to physical things as well as technology and software.

Scope of the Export Administration Regulations

General Applicability

The EAR have very broad application. With only the exceptions noted below, the EAR apply to the following categories of things:
  1. All items in the United States, including in a U.S. Foreign Trade Zone or moving intransit through the United States from one foreign country to another;
  2. All U.S. origin items wherever located;
  3. Foreign-made commodities that incorporate controlled U.S.-origin commodities, foreign-made commodities that are ‘bundled’ with controlled U.S.-origin software, foreign-made software that is commingled with controlled U.S.-origin software, and foreign-made technology that is commingled with controlled U.S.-origin technology in certain quantities ;
  4. Certain foreign-made direct products of U.S. origin technology or software, as described in 15 CFR §736.2; and
  5. Certain commodities produced by any plant or major component of a plant located outside the United States that is a direct product of U.S.-origin technology or software, as described in §736.2 of the EAR.

    Exceptions to EAR Applicability

The EAR do not apply, however, to the following:
  1. Items that are exclusively controlled for export or reexport by the following departments and agencies of the U.S. Government which regulate exports or reexports for national security or foreign policy purposes:
  2. *Department of State. The International Traffic in Arms Regulations administered by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls relate to defense articles and defense services on the U.S. Munitions List. Section 38 of the Arms Export Control Act..
  3. * Treasury Department, Office of Foreign Assets Control. Regulations administered by OFAC implement broad controls and embargo transactions with certain foreign countries. These regulations include controls on exports and reexports to certain countries. Trading with the Enemy Act, and International Emergency Economic Powers Act
  4. * U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Regulations administered by NRC control the export and reexport of commodities related to nuclear reactor vessels. Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended.
  5. * Department of Energy. Regulations administered by DOE control the export and reexport of technology related to the production of special nuclear materials. Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended.
  6. * Patent and Trademark Office. Regulations administered by PTO provide for the export to a foreign country of unclassified technology in the form of a patent application or an amendment, modification, or supplement thereto or division thereof. BIS has delegated authority under the Export Administration Act to the PTO to approve exports and reexports of such technology which is subject to the EAR. Exports and reexports of such technology not approved under PTO regulations must comply with the EAR.
  7. * Department of Defense and Department of State Foreign Military Sales Program. Items that are subject to the EAR that are sold, leased or loaned by the Department of Defense to a foreign country or international organization under the FMS Program of the Arms Export Control Act pursuant to a Letter of Offer and Acceptance authorizing such transfers are not “subject to the EAR,” but rather, are subject to the authority of the Arms Export Control Act.
  8. Prerecorded phonograph records reproducing in whole or in part, the content of printed books, pamphlets, and miscellaneous publications, including newspapers and periodicals; printed books, pamphlets, and miscellaneous publications including bound newspapers and periodicals; children's picture and painting books; newspaper and periodicals, unbound, excluding waste; music books; sheet music; calendars and calendar blocks, paper; maps, hydrographical charts, atlases, gazetteers, globe covers, and globes ; exposed and developed microfilm reproducing, in whole or in part, the content of any of the above; exposed and developed motion picture film and soundtrack; and advertising printed matter exclusively related thereto.
  9. Information and “software” that:
  10. * Are published, as described in 15 CFR §734.7;
  11. * Arise during, or result from, fundamental research, as described in 15 CFR §734.8;
  12. * Are released by instruction in a catalog course or associated teaching laboratory of an academic institution;
  13. * Appear in patents or open patent applications available from or at any patent office, unless covered by an invention secrecy order, or are otherwise patent information as described in 15 CFR §734.10;
  14. * Are non-proprietary system descriptions; or
  15. * Are telemetry data as defined in Note 2 to Category 9, Product Group E.

    Classification

The EAR contain a list called the Commerce Control List. The CCL is a limited list of items within the scope of the EAR which merit particular attention because they could potentially have a military use in addition to a commercial use. CCL-listed items are therefore often referred to as "dual use." The CCL, however, is not an exhaustive list of things that are within the scope of the EAR; to the contrary, the overwhelming majority of things that fall within the scope of the EAR are not listed on the CCL; instead, they are given the designation "EAR99."
Items that are listed on the CCL are organized according to alpha-numeric designations called "Export Control Classification Numbers".

The 10 General Prohibitions

The EAR contain a list of rules called the 10 General Prohibitions, which provide as follows:

General Prohibition 1.

You may not, without a license or License Exception, export any item subject to the EAR to another country or reexport any item of U.S.-origin if each of the following is true:
The item is controlled for a reason indicated in the applicable Export Control Classification Number, and
Export to the country of destination requires a license for the control reason as indicated on the Country Chart at part 738 of the EAR.

General Prohibition 2.

You may not, without a license or license exception, reexport or export from abroad foreign-made commodities that incorporate controlled U.S.-origin commodities, foreign-made commodities that are “bundled” with controlled U.S.-origin software, foreign-made software that is commingled with controlled U.S.-origin software, or foreign-made technology that is commingled with controlled U.S.-origin technology if such items require a license according to any of the provisions in the EAR and incorporate or are commingled with more than a de minimis amount of controlled U.S. content, as defined in §734.4 of the EAR concerning the scope of the EAR.

General Prohibition 3.

General Prohibition 3 applies to certain items that are produced outside of the U.S. and that are the "direct product" of U.S. technology or software, or they are developed from a plat which is the "direct product" of U.S. technology or software.
Under General Prohibition 3, you may not, without a license or license exception, reexport any item that meets the direct product test to a destination in Country Group D:1, E:1, or E:2. Additionally, you may not, without a license or license exception, reexport or export from abroad any ECCN 0A919 commodities that meet the direct product test to a destination in Country Group D:1, D:3, D:4, D:5, E:1, or E:2.

General Prohibition 4.

You may not take any action that is prohibited by a denial order issued under 15 CFR Part 766. These orders prohibit many actions in addition to direct exports by the person denied export privileges, including some transfers within a single country, either in the United States or abroad, by other persons. You are responsible for ensuring that any of your transactions in which a person who is denied export privileges is involved do not violate the terms of the order. Orders denying export privileges are published in the Federal Register when they are issued and are the legally controlling documents in accordance with their terms. BIS also maintains compilations of persons denied export privileges on its Web site at http://www.bis.doc.gov. BIS may, on an exceptional basis, authorize activity otherwise prohibited by a denial order. See 15 CFR §764.3.

General Prohibition 5.

You may not, without a license, knowingly export or reexport any item subject to the EAR to an end-user or end-use that is prohibited by part 744 of the EAR.

General Prohibition 6.

You may not, without a license or License Exception authorized under part 746, export or reexport any item subject to the EAR to any of the following countries:
U.S. persons may not perform certain activities relating to nuclear explosive devices, missiles, and chemical or biological weapons, as set out in 15 CFR § 744.6.

General Prohibition 8.

Under General Prohibition 8, if you export or reexport an item, it may not pass through any of the following countries without a license :
You may not violate terms or conditions of a license or of a License Exception issued under or made a part of the EAR, and you may not violate any order issued under or made a part of the EAR.

General Prohibition 10.

You may not sell, transfer, export, reexport, finance, order, buy, remove, conceal, store, use, loan, dispose of, transport, forward, or otherwise service, in whole or in part, any item subject to the EAR and exported or to be exported with knowledge that a violation of the Export Administration Regulations, the Export Administration Act or any order, license, License Exception, or other authorization issued thereunder has occurred, is about to occur, or is intended to occur in connection with the item. Nor may you rely upon any license or License Exception after notice to you of the suspension or revocation of that license or exception.

Definitions

Definition of Export.

With a few exceptions, the EAR define "export" to mean:
  1. An actual shipment or transmission out of the United States, including the sending or taking of an item out of the United States, in any manner;
  2. Releasing or otherwise transferring “technology” or source code to a foreign person in the United States ;
  3. Transferring by a person in the United States of registration, control, or ownership of spacecraft, under certain circumstances.

    Definition of Reexport.

Once a thing has been exported from the United States to a foreign country, the EAR define "reexport" to mean a subsequent export of the thing from the first foreign country to a second foreign country, and to any subsequent export after that.

Definition of Technology.

The EAR define "technology" to mean information necessary for the “development,” “production,” “use,” operation, installation, maintenance, repair, overhaul, or refurbishing of an item.
“Technology” may be in any tangible or intangible form, such as written or oral communications, blueprints, drawings, photographs, plans, diagrams, models, formulae, tables, engineering designs and specifications, computer-aided design files, manuals or documentation, electronic media or information revealed through visual inspection.