State Dept. Sends ITAR Final Rule for Interagency Review

The State Department this week sent a final rule for interagency review that would amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to create definitions for activities that are not exports, reexports or retransfers. The rule would create definitions for a range of activities, including launching items into space, providing technical data to U.S. people within the U.S. or within a single country abroad, and moving defense articles between states, possessions and U.S. territories.

Other changes would remove certain activities from ITAR licensing requirements, including the “electronic transmission and storage of unclassified technical data via foreign communications infrastructure when the data is secured sufficiently to prevent access by foreign persons.” The State Department will also propose to amend the ITAR to create definitions for “access information” and to revise the definition of “release to include the improper provision of access information to foreign persons.” The agency issued an interim final rule and requested public comments for some of these changes in 2019 (see 1912230052).