BIS Sets New Reporting Threshold For Exports, Imports of Certain Controlled Chemicals

July 3, 2023 |Commerce Dept.

A new rule change by the Bureau of Industry and Security will subject a broader range of chemical mixtures to declaration requirements, including for export or import. The revisions, outlined in a final rule that takes effect July 3, lowers the concentration threshold level at which mixtures containing certain controlled chemicals are subject to the declaration requirements. The change brings the U.S. Chemical Weapons Convention Regulations “into further alignment” with guidelines adopted by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2009, which established the lower concentration threshold limit for certain chemicals.

The change applies to Schedule 2A chemicals listed in the Chemical Weapons Convention’s Annex on Chemicals:

Amiton: 0,0-Diethyl S-[2-(diethylamino)ethyl] phosphorothiolate and corresponding alkylated or protonated salts (78-53-5)
PFIB: 1,1,3,3,3-Pentafluoro-2-(trifluoromethyl)-1-propene (382-21-8)
BZ: 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate (6581-06-2).

BIS said its rule replaces the previous concentration threshold of 30% to a threshold of 10% by volume or weight -- “whichever formula yields the lesser percentage.” CWC member countries lowered the threshold because these chemicals pose “a significant risk to the object and purpose of the Convention” due to their “lethal or incapacitating toxicity.” BIS noted two of the three chemicals -- Amiton and BZ -- are defense articles controlled under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, and the third chemical -- PFIB -- is controlled under the Commerce Control List. BIS said exports of PFIB are “minimal.”

As part of the change, BIS said plant sites must submit a “declaration” if “one or more plants at that site produced, processed or consumed a Schedule 2 chemical during any of the three previous calendar years, or anticipate doing so in the next calendar year, in excess of the declaration threshold.” Plant sites and companies must also submit declarations or reports of exports and imports of the chemicals “if such entities or persons exported or imported a Schedule 2 chemical in a quantity above the applicable threshold level, including amounts in mixtures above the specified low concentration level.”