BIS Completes ‘Backlog’ of MEU-Related Advisory Opinion Requests, Official Says

The Bureau of Industry and Security was “overwhelmed” with advisory opinion requests after issuing its 2020 rules creating military end-user regulations and an MEU list (see 2004270027), said Matt Borman, deputy assistant secretary for export administration, speaking during a Sept. 27 defense industry conference hosted by IDEEA. He said the agency was “happy” to help companies that had questions about the rule, but the process was time-consuming. “It took us a while,” Borman said. “But I think we're through that backlog” now.

Complying with the MEU rule has proven challenging for businesses, some of which have chosen to take a conservative licensing approach to ensure they don’t violate the restrictions (see 2201270063, 2102190042, 2109300061 and 2205110042). Borman acknowledged challenges. “There's any number of U.S. government lists,” which can often raise questions among industry about which entities are subject to which restrictions, he said.

“While the placement of a party on another list is not a license requirement,” Borman said, “it's certainly at least a red flag or another thing to look at.” BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez told Congress in July the agency is working to harmonize the Entity List with lists maintained by other agencies, including DOD (see 2207190057).

Borman encouraged companies that still have concerns about the MEU regulations to reach out to BIS, adding that compliance should become more manageable as the government identifies more military end-users. “As you can imagine, over time, there will always be more entities added to those lists,” Borman said. “Hopefully that will also help.”