Export Control Reform Reducing Confusion, Complaints From Exporters, BIS Official Says

The Commerce Department has been receiving fewer questions and complaints on export controls as it proceeds with the government’s Export Control Reform initiative, said Hillary Hess, director of the regulatory policy division at the Bureau of Industry and Security. The reform process, which began under the Obama administration and continues as Commerce prepares to release proposed export controls on emerging and foundational technologies (see 1909030037), has proved largely “effective,” Hess said. Hess said she uses the number of complaints from U.S. industry as a measurement.

“It’s not necessarily scientific,” Hess said, speaking during a Sept. 3 panel hosted by the American Bar Association. “But the way I would judge this is the decreasing number of questions and complaints that we get on … ‘how do you classify this’ or ‘is this yours or the State Department’s?”

Hess said Commerce and other export control agencies have struggled “for years and years” to determine if the reform has been working, adding that there’s no “good way of measuring the effectiveness” of export controls. “It’s difficult to define,” she said. “And we’ve never really come up with anything.”

But she said she feels U.S. companies have a better grasp of the controls and Commerce’s reform process. “We’re just getting fewer questions, fewer problems -- as they’re expressed to us -- with those parts of the regulations that we touched during the export control reform,” she said. “So that’s how I would judge it. That’s sort of the best information I have on that.”