International Trade Law News

Published by Jacobson Burton Kelley PLLC

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today released a report to Congress entitled Export Controls: Challenges Exist in Enforcement of an Inherently Complex System. Not surprisingly, the report concluded that "export control enforcement is inherently complex, involving multiple agencies that perform various functions using differing authorities." The report found that
the enforcement agencies "have had difficulty coordinating investigations and agreeing on how to proceed on cases." The report also correctly notes the significant problems that exist in the license determination process. The GAO also found that the export enforcement agencies face other challenges, "including balancing priorities and leveraging finite resources."

To correct these problems, the GAO recommends the following:

• Establishment of a task force to evaluate options to improve coordination and cooperation among export enforcement investigative agencies, such as creating new or updating existing operating agreements between and among these agencies, identifying and replicating best practices for routinely collaborating on or leading investigations, and establishing a mechanism for clarifying roles and responsibilities for individual export control cases involving foreign counterintelligence, and report the status of task force actions to Congress.
  

• To ensure discipline and improve information needed for license determinations the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Secretary of Commerce should direct the Under Secretary for Industry and Security to establish goals for processing license determinations. In addition, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) should coordinate with licensing officers, inspectors, investigators and prosecutors to determine what additional training or guidance is needed on license determinations, including the type of information needed to make license determinations.
  

• To ensure systematic reconciliation of shipments with Commerce licenses, BIS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) should determine the feasibility of establishing a requirement for CBP to decrement Commerce licenses and an action plan for doing so.
  

• To ensure that State and Commerce have complete information on enforcement actions, the Justice Department should establish formal procedures for conveying criminal export enforcement results to DDTC and BIS.

Labels: BIS, DDTC, Export Controls, OFAC