Formerly, ITAR required the respondent to provide separate correspondence via a transmittal letter to certify criminal history, eligibility, and foreign ownership. Often, this mandate was overlooked by the respondent, resulting in the return without action of the incomplete application. The revised DS-2032 incorporates these certifications within the form.

Companies registering on or after October 1, 2011 will be required to submit their payments electronically. Beginning August 2011, registration renewal letters will contain instructions for submitting registration fees electronically.

Individuals and companies engaged in the business of manufacturing, exporting, importing and/or brokering defense articles or services should register with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) annually. With this change registrants will instead be required to submit registration fees electronically via Automated Clearing House (ACH) payable to the Department of State.

For further information contact: Lisa V. Aguirre, Director, Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, Department of State, 2401 E Street, NW, SA-1, Room H1200, Washington, DC 20522-0112; telephone 202-632-2798 or fax 202-632-2878; or e-mail through DDTCResponseTeam@state.gov, with the subject line, “Electronic Payment of Registration Fees.”

Responsible for the administration of customer service issues, customer communications and customer requests and orders on a daily basis. Maintain and ensure integrity of all customer data in the business systems, including customer property, orders and associated dollars.  Assure that all customer requests for quotes are properly managed in the PTS system. Responsible for maintaining and ensuring accurate backlog, orders, and market segmentation data. Position Specification Education/Experience

• An Associates or Bachelors degree with a minimum of 5 years related industry work experience.
• Solid understanding of military and commercial export compliance regulations.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively and professionally communicate with all levels in the organization, vendors and customers.
• Understanding of pricing models.
• Proven negotiation skills.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong computer skills with working knowledge of MS Office and Access.
• Proven team-work capabilities and experience.

• Understanding of the Fourth Shift or Syteline ERP system.
• Able to handle and resolve customer complaints and problems and escalate when required.
• Willing and able to develop long-term relationships internally and externally.
• Attention to detail.

The Customer Service Representative provides support to both the internal and external customers of the company.  This position plays an active role in the maintenance and management of the various business systems. Success in this role will require a proactive approach and the ability to create and implement process improvements to ensure that the systems and processes are as robust as possible to provide superior service to the customers.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Responsible for the accurate and timely management of all sales order activity.
• Ensure all sales data is accurate and complete in order to maintain order, market and backlog reporting integrity including schedule and associated dollars.
• Responsible for raising export compliance concerns to the DECA or DECA backup when required.
• Serves as a central point of contact for customer inquiries. Provides customers with updated order and delivery status.
• Responsible for inputting data (RFQs, pricing, status, etc) into the PTS (Proposal Tracking System) and ensuring that all data is accurate and complete and up to date.
• Provides engineering with request for quote information required to initiate estimating process.
• Performs contract review and order acceptance process. Controls and maintains master contracts/ purchase order files.
• Assists with the configuration control process.
• Performs the EDI transaction conversion to the business system. Tracks changes in delivery dates, prices and handles terminations.
• Maintains customer information in the various business systems.
• Responsible for disseminating Terms and Conditions, special shipping instructions, configuration changes and quality requirements throughout the organization.
• Assists accounting with invoicing and collection issues.
• Review Customer Scorecards.
• Perform other duties as required by the business and as instructed by supervisor.

Essential Functions of Position

Interpersonal Skills

• Must be able to communicate clearly and effectively with all levels of personnel within the organization and the customer.
• Must be able to communicate orally and/or in writing as to work requirements, work in progress, and/or work completion
• Must be able to follow complex instructions and/or directions. May require ability to decide on a course/sequence of action

Schedule and Planning

• Must be able to schedule and organize time effectively to satisfactorily complete assigned tasks and functions.

Physical Effort

• Minimal physical effort
• May be required to travel occasionally to customer premises or corporate office.
• Operate personal computer.

Working Conditions

• Primarily work in office areas with exposure to shop floor.
• Generally responsible for the safety and clean up of own work area.

Disclaimer

• The above information on this job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibility and qualification required of employees assigned to this job.

Contact Pamela R. Daly regarding this position at:

Barnes Aerospace

169 Kennedy Rd

Windsor, CT 06095

P: 860-687-5270

F: 401-228-0823

pdaly@barnesaero.com

]]> http://learnexportcompliance.bluekeyblogs.com/2011/07/05/available-customer-serviceexport-compliance-position/feed/ 0 http://learnexportcompliance.bluekeyblogs.com/2011/05/03/tennessee-trafficking-tisk-tisk/ http://learnexportcompliance.bluekeyblogs.com/2011/05/03/tennessee-trafficking-tisk-tisk/#comments Tue, 03 May 2011 18:00:48 +0000 Anna Barone http://learnexportcompliance.bluekeyblogs.com/?p=1048 Following an extensive investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), four former officers of Sabre Defense Industries, LLC (SDI-US) plead guilty to the following charges:

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States
• Conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud
• Making false statements on export and import documents
• Conspiracy to violate the AECA

Specifically, they admitted to:

• Illegally importing and exporting regulated firearms and firearm components and technology to and from the United States from Sabre Defense Industries, LLC and from their personal residences.
• Exporting firearm components from the U.S. to an international location without first obtaining a license or written authorization from the DDTC of the U.S. Department of State.
• Importing silencers into U.S. from international sources without having first obtained the required license and authorization from ATF.
• Falsifying shipping records, conceal unlicensed firearms components in false bottoms of shipping cartons, and mislabel and undervalue shipments of firearm components, since 2003, to avoid scrutiny by U.S. Customs and Border Protection control officers.
• Concealing illegal import and export activities by maintaining two sets of business books to record the company’s accounts and balances, and its export and import activities.

U.S. Attorney Jerry Martin says, “The illegal import, export and transfer of firearms and related components poses a great risk to America and our allies.   Those who engage in such irresponsible and illegal activity will come to realize the commitment of our law enforcement partners to safeguarding America and the high priority given to this issue by the Department of Justice.”

Sentencing is set for August 1, 2011 at 10 a.m.

Additional information available:

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1103/110329nashville.htm

A company needs three levels of training

1)      Expert training: The core export compliance experts need to be experts on the rules

2)      Awareness training:  A wide range of company personnel need to trained to know what issues export rules create and how to handle them or whom to ask for help

3)      Executive training:  Top level management needs to understand the risks of violation and how export rules impact the company’s business activities so management can decide how much money and resources to spend on compliance.

This article will focus on expert training.  I will write articles later to discuss the other training.

A starting point for any company export compliance program is for the company to figure out what the rules are and how they apply they apply to the company’s products, technologies and activities.  This usually means that the company, depending on its size and export issues, appoints one or two, or maybe a few people to be the export compliance experts.  While someone new to export compliance theoretically could learn the rules by reading the rules, it is usually much better for the newbie to be taught what the rules say and how they work before digging into the voluminous, arcane, and complicated regulations.  There are various export control regulations—the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR), plus the various Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulations—and the company needs to know if and how each of these regulations impacts the company.

And, unfortunately, a quick glance is not enough and common sense won’t help—who would think the ITAR regulates exports of items involved in sending TV signals for the Sunday football game to your house?  You need to learn what the rules actually say.  Beware of company folk lore—“we’ve always done it this way,” or “if we sell to the military its ITAR, but if we sell to somebody else it is not ITAR,” or “the ITAR does not let you put technical data in the ‘public domain.’”  You need to focus on learning the rules themselves.

Beware of oral information that contradicts the rules—whether from a government or other source.  Sure, maybe today the government interprets the word “green” to include “yellow” because yellow is a precursor to green.  But if the rules do not say that, and you act as if green does not include yellow, you have put yourself in a defendable position, to say the least.  Most of us do not talk to every government official in Washington so that we know the interpretation of the day — and we don’t know if 99% or only 0.01% of the government interprets green to include yellow.  Learn how to read the rules — then do what they say!

Once you start on the long path to becoming an expert on the rules, you have to figure out what procedures you will implement to help your company follow the rules.  Technically, in most cases, implementing procedures is optional because it is not a violation to fail to have compliance procedures.  It certainly is prudent, however, to implement compliance procedures if you want to do a good job on compliance.

Going to a live seminar is the best form of training.  There is nothing better than being able to interrupt a knowledgeable speaker and ask a question when it pops into your head.  A key part of live training may be the 5 minutes you spend at a break talking to the instructor about a specific issue.  Electronic or online training is better than nothing if your company is not willing to pay for live training, or if live training is otherwise not an option.

In any event, you need to make sure the people giving the training are experts on the rules.  They need to be able to give practical advice on the many different approaches you can take in implementing company procedures to follow the rules.  Verify the expertise of the trainers.  A person’s title or pay grade is not a key factor, nor is whether the person works in or outside of the government.  The best thing to do is talk to industry experts who actually have received training from the person giving the training you are considering.

Your goal should be to become an expert on the rules, or perhaps an expert on the rules that specifically impact your company.  This is a difficult task but you can do it.  (If I can do it, anybody can, trust me.)  To be an expert, you need regular and repeated training.  The first training you get to introduce you to the topic may be overwhelming, so just try to pick the most important issues—for example, take away the fact that you need to do export jurisdiction determinations and classifications for all of your hardware, technical data and software, but don’t worry if you didn’t memorize the second exception to the first prohibition in the antiboycott regulations.

Go to each training after the first with two objectives.  First, to hear people validate that what you think is true is true.  These export rules are often illogical and hard to believe so you might start doubting your understanding.  You will get value from just listening to somebody say that a convoluted rule means what you think it means.  You second objective is to learn more.  Eventually you need to understand the second exception to the first prohibition in the antiboycott regulations.  I know people who are experts and continue to attend the same seminar 5 – 10 times because they always get something new out of it.

If you are an export compliance professional, you need to embrace this reality:  The more you learn about the export compliance rules, the more difficult it becomes to comply with the rules.  Think about it:  A novice thinks export controls just mean taking care of exports of products.  As that person learns more he realizes that export compliance applies to hundreds of emails leaving his facility daily, and then that his employees with work visas present export compliance issues.  More and more training will not make your life easier, but will likely just add more things to your list of things do to as you learn about a rule you did not know about, or as you notice a different aspect of a rule.

As you can see, training is not a onetime event.  You should be training at least once a year, and I recommend twice a year in most cases.  I already discussed how the complexity of the rules calls for repeated training.  These rules also change.  The government procedures often change (hmm, the ITAR Agreement Guidelines come to mind!).  You need to stay up to date with changes and continue to grow and build your expertise.

Having well trained export compliance experts is good for your company.  Being a well-trained export compliance expert is good for you.  As your expertise grows, so does your confidence in your knowledge, and that puts you in a better position to tell your engineer “yes, it is true that we have to treat the employee with a work visa as an export issue.”  You will encounter people who want to comply with what the rules ought to say or what they would like for them to say.  You argue against those people by showing them what the rules say.  Your expertise will enable you to point to the rules as the basis for the positions you take so you can say “maybe it does not make sense, but this is what it says.”

And, of course, being well trained on export compliance is a valuable addition to your resume!

***************************************

John Black has been in the field of export controls since 1984, is a consultant with BSG Consulting and a regular speaker for The Export Compliance Training Institute (ECTI).  ECTI offers live seminars for US Companies and companies located overseas.  The current schedule of their seminars can be found at http://learnexportcompliance.com/schedule

The story begins when 21 year old arms dealer, Efraim Diveroli, scored a $300 million munitions contract with the Pentagon in 2008. Diveroli worked with Miami Beach company, AEY Inc., to sell the Pentagon $10.3 million of prohibited Chinese munitions.

AEY and Diveroli unpackaged the machine-gun rounds from the Chinese marked tins and repackaged them to state that they had been made in Albania. Diveroli worked with David Packouz (AEY’s vice president), Alexander Podrizki (AEY’s agent/investor) and Ralph Merril of Utah to pull off the scheme, all the men involved are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty. AEY was found guilty of one count of conspiracy and has been ordered to pay a $500,000 fine.

Diveroli on the other hand has been sentenced to four years in prison, fined $250,000 and ordered to repay the Defense Department more than $149,000. During sentencing the judge scolded Diveroli for his life of deception, gambling and substance abuse…”If it wasn’t so amazing, you would laugh that such a young man could attain such responsibilities,” the judge explained. He was facing 5 years but the judge apparently cut him a “break” of one year because “his five months in prison have taught him a sober lesson, transforming him from a reckless egotist to a humbled inmate.”  I have to ask though, what 20 something isn’t a reckless egotist these days?

Bruce says: “Although it may seem unusual that a male will be President of WIT-LA, it emphasized the point that the organization represents all the people involved in export-import trade and regulations. I look forward to working with a very talented board of directors of both genders and many different backgrounds, to create valuable programs that serve the trade community.”

Website: http://www.wit-la.org/index.asp

Tier 1: Items are weapons of mass destruction; WMD-capable unmanned delivery systems; plants, facilities or items specially designed for producing, processing, or using WMD, special nuclear materials or WMD-capable unmanned delivery systems; and items almost exclusively available from the US that provide a critical military or intelligence advantage to the US

Tier 2: Items are almost exclusively available from regime partners or adherents and provide a substantial military or intelligence advantage to the US or make a substantial contribution to the indigenous development, production, use or enhancement of a tier 1 or tier 2 items.

Tier 3: Items are more broadly available and provide a significant military or intelligence advantage to the US or make a significant contribution to the indigenous development, production, use or enhancement of tier 1, 2, or 3 items or are otherwise controlled for national security, foreign policy or human rights reasons.

Comments must be received by February 8, 2011, for information on how to submit your comments visit: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-30994.htm (Federal Register)

BIS is asking for the same comments/opinions with regard to items on the Commerce Control List (CCL) by February 7, 2011, for information on how to submit your comments visit: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-30966.htm (Federal Register)

This new certification was created to put a dent in the number of violations of the “Deemed Export” rule. Employers have always been liable for export control violations. This new certification exposes the rule even more by forcing the applicant company to go on record. Deemed Exports can occur in a number of ways, anything from a foreign national employee accessing restricted technology through a company intranet to observing the technology while working in a manufacturing plant…the possibilities are endless.

This new visa application requirement reminds employers that they have to pay close attention to their controlled technology and be prepared to show why certain technologies are or are not subject to export controls in the event of an audit. Employers will now need to classify their own technology and technical data and also those generated by third parties. This means that employers may have to obtain export classification information from third parties or guidance from the government ruling…a very time consuming task.

Information available at: http://global-immigration-news.totallyexpat.com/united-states-new-form-i-129-will-require-certification/