Australia Proposes Export Control Reforms Amid AUKUS Effort

Australia last week unveiled proposed reforms to its export control requirements and penalties as it works to harmonize its defense trade regulations with the U.S. The proposals, which include a one-week public comment period, would establish an “export license-free environment” for certain defense and technology trade with the U.S. and the U.K. and criminalize certain violations of Australian export control requirements. The proposals specifically include a new “national exemption” from certain export permit requirements for parties from the U.S. and the U.K., Australia said.

The measures were released after months of work between officials from the three countries under the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership (see 2310260059), which is partly intended to reduce burdensome U.S. defense export control requirements. Officials also have been working with Congress on legislation that could expedite U.S. defense exports within the group (see 2309060028), but Australia and the U.K. would need to meet a provision in the bill that requires the State Department to certify both countries have export control regimes “comparable” to that of the U.S. (see 2309270007 and 2307140019).

Australia’s proposed reforms, included in the 2023 Defence Trade Controls Amendment Bill released last week, could bring the country closer to meeting that certification. In an explanatory memo, Australia said the purpose of the bill “is to strengthen Australia’s export control framework in order to establish an export control regime that is comparable to the one the United States administers.”

The country specifically said its proposal to create a license-free export environment “will revolutionise trade among and between AUKUS partners and encourage industry, higher education and research sectors in all three nations to innovate and cooperate with lower technology transfer barriers and costs of trade.” The memo said this “would provide Australia and our partners a genuine capability development edge.”

Australia would also criminalize certain export control violations, including the illegal supply to a foreign person, within Australia, of certain items controlled under the country’s Defence and Strategic Goods List. The country would also pursue criminal charges against exports of DSGL-controlled goods and technology from Australia to another country that are then illegally exported to another non-approved country or person. “This offence is intended to regulate the secondary supply of goods and technology after they have been supplied to a recipient outside of Australia,” the country said.

Australia also would criminalize the illegal provision of DSGL-controlled services, including those that involve military or dual-use goods and technology. This could include any “assistance,” including training, to foreign people for “the design, development, engineering, manufacture, production, assembly, testing, repair, maintenance, modification, operation, demilitarisation, destruction, processing, or use of” certain DSGL-controlled goods or technology without a license.

“Realising the full potential of AUKUS will not be possible without major changes to the way that AUKUS partners cooperate on defence industrial and technology issues,” Australia said, adding that all three countries are “reviewing their export control regimes to support the creation of an export licence-free environment among and between AUKUS partners.”

The bill also outlines various exceptions to the proposed rules, and Australia said it's “considering additional exceptions” to its DSGL. Public submissions on the proposals are due Nov. 17.