Archive for the ‘Dual/3rd Party Nationals’ Category

DDTC Asks NSC For Guidance on Foreign National Rules

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 by Guest Author

Source: Reprinted from Export Law Blog (ExportLawBlog.com) by permission of its author Clif Burns, Bryan Cave LLP, Washington DC (telephone: 202.624.3949, email: clif.burns@bryancave.com).

April 14, 2009. An article in this week’s Washington Tariff & Trade Letter (paid subscription required) reports that at the Defense Trade Advisory Group (“DTAG”) meeting held on April 7, Frank Ruggiero, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (“DDTC”) announced that the agency had asked the National Security Council to review the treatment of foreign nationals under U.S.
export laws. The DDTC request was sent at the end of March, but there is no current timetable for its consideration by the NSC inasmuch as the Obama administration is still putting together and organizing the new NSC. (more…)

Posted in BIS, Canada, DDTC, Dual/3rd Party Nationals | Comments Off

Dual National Indigestion: Any Relief?

Thursday, April 9th, 2009 by Maarten Sengers

A senior official from the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) hinted today that it may consider revisiting the definition of what constitutes a “dual” or “third country” national for purposes of International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) compliance. Frank Ruggiero, the Acting Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs noted at a Defense Technical Advisory Group meeting in Washington on April 7 that Commerce, State and the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program all have different definitions on what constitutes a dual or third country nationals for purposes of export compliance, and that State would look into developing a harmonized interagency approach. (more…)

Posted in DDTC, Dual/3rd Party Nationals, ITAR | Comments Off

Luxembourg-based Company and Affiliates Pay $25 Million Fine to US Government

Monday, February 2nd, 2009 by Danielle McClellan

By: Danielle McClellan, Maarten Sengers and John Black

Qioptiq S.a.r.l (Qioptiq), the owner of a night vision equipment producer in Singapore and related affiliates in the UK and the US, recently agreed to pay $25 million in fines for US International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) violations. The bulk of the 163 charges relate to Qioptiq Singapore activities, including disclosure of unlicensed US night vision technology to its own employees in Singapore, the export of ITAR jurisdiction technology to a variety of countries, and the manufacture and unlicensed export of night vision assemblies using US origin ITAR data to a variety of countries. The large fine is due to the fact that the majority of the violations involved illegal transfers to China (or Chinese national employees) and Iran, two countries that are subject to particularly restrictive ITAR proscribed country status.

SPECIAL NOTE:The Export Compliance Training Institute will discuss the case in detail and look at practical steps companies may take to avoid such fines at its upcoming seminars on US export and reexport controls in Singapore on March 1-4, 2009. Details available at: http://learnexportcompliance.com/seminars/ecti-2010-singapore-seminar.pdf

Qioptiq obtained several Thales High Technology Optic Group companies, including Thales Electro-Optics Pte Limited, Singapore (Thales Singapore), Avimo Singapore (predecessor to Thales Singapore), Thales Optical Coatings, Limited, UK and Thales Optem, Inc., NY (Thales NY) in December 2005. (For the purpose of this article we often will refer to the collective group of companies in Singapore as Qioptiq unless otherwise specified, and not make the distinction between whether violations occurred when the entity was Thales or Qioptiq.) The companies’ primary business is the manufacturing of optical components used in both commercial and military applications. Before the purchase, Thales voluntarily disclosed some of the ITAR violations to the US Government and agreed that its successor company Qioptiq would conduct a thorough review of ITAR compliance over the preceding five years, (and further in some situations). Because of the Thales agreement with the US Government Qioptiq inherited many of the violations when it acquired the Thales companies. (more…)

Posted in BIS, Denied & Restricted Parties, Dual/3rd Party Nationals, Export License, Germany, Singapore, USA Regulations, Violations & Fines | Comments Off

New Guidelines for Supporting Docs for DSP-73 and DSP-61

Friday, May 16th, 2008 by Danielle McClellan

The DDTC has published the new guidelines for supporting documentation requirements for license types DSP-73 and DSP-61. These requirements became effective April 15, 2008 and any stand alone license applications that are submitted after this date are subject to Return Without Action.

(more…)

Posted in DDTC, Dual-Use, Dual/3rd Party Nationals, Export License | Comments Off

Australia Government Allows BAE to Discriminate for ITAR Reasons

Monday, February 4th, 2008 by Danielle McClellan

BAE Systems in South Australia, a defense company, has been granted an exemption from the equal opportunity laws. The company may discriminate on the basis of nationality when selecting employees for US contracts in order to satisfy the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

Linda Matthews, the South Australia Equal Opportunity Commissioner argued that basic human rights should not be overridden by commercial considerations. Her strong opposition of BAE’s application was not enough to convince the Department of Justice to deny their application. BAE’s legal counsel is denying all allegations that the company ever violated South Australia Equal Opportunity laws before the date of the approval of the company’s application.

This development allows BAE to comply with US ITAR requirements that certain foreign nationals not access US defense articles without violating the laws of Australia.

More information:

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock News/1058903/

Posted in Australia, Defense Trade Controls, Dual/3rd Party Nationals, ITAR | Comments Off

Bell Helicopter and Quebec Human Rights Commission Settle ITAR-Based Problem

Thursday, January 17th, 2008 by Danielle McClellan

The Quebec Human Rights Commission issued a press release on January 17, 2008 regarding the settlement between Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd. and a Haitian-born man who held Canadian citizenship but was denied an internship because of his ethnicity and the ITAR. According to the ITAR, individuals who hold citizenship in 25 countries, Haiti included, cannot work on U.S. military contracts.

The man was initially hired for the internship with Bell Helicopter until it was found that his citizenship would affect the company’s compliance with the ITAR so he was denied the position. The man has lived in Canada for 30 years and was a citizen, but because he was born in Haiti he was restricted by the ITAR to perform duties at Bell Helicopter.

Quebec Human Rights Commission is now encouraging other individuals of dual citizenship to bring cases to the human rights commissions if they have suffered, are suffering or will suffer in the future discrimination by companies who are complying with the U.S. ITAR. Companies are urged to develop policies and procedures to comply with Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This however, will be difficult because certain policies and procedures will not be appropriate and work for the laws in both Canada and the United States.

Posted in Canada, Dual/3rd Party Nationals, ITAR, Violations & Fines | Comments Off

Compliance with U.S. ITAR Can Cause Legal Problems for Canadian Companies

Thursday, December 20th, 2007 by Guest Author

Some Canadian companies in the defense industry are finding themselves in a catch-22 situation. If they comply with the U.S. ITARs and restrict access on employees with certain nationalities, then the employees are taking the company to the provincial human rights tribunal. If they do not comply with the U.S ITARs, they cannot obtain U.S business and they may be committing an offence under U.S. law (if there is a connection to a U.S. based company). (more…)

Posted in Canada, Defense Trade Controls, Dual/3rd Party Nationals, ITAR | Comments Off

Some Nuts and Bolts of New ITAR Agreements Requirements

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 by Danielle McClellan

On December 19, 2007, an amendment to the ITAR was published that revised the licensing procedures with regards to third party/dual nationals for technical assistance and manufacturing license agreements. It is no longer required that additional approval for a release of technical data, defense services, and access to defense articles for third part/dual national employees from NATO, EU, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Switzerland. (more…)

Posted in Australia, DDTC, Defense Trade Controls, Dual/3rd Party Nationals, EU, Federal Register, Information Technology, ITAR, MLA, NATO, TAA, USA Regulations | Comments Off

DDTC Announces New Dual and Third Country National TAA and MLA Rule

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 by John Black

“Beware of apparently good news.” — John Black

In the December 19, 2007 Federal Register, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) of the State Department announced its new policy for dual and third country nationals. The change primarily is related to the requirement that when you apply for a Technical Assistance Agreement (TAA) or Manufacturing License Agreement, you must identify the foreign nationalities of the foreign signatories to the agreement. (more…)

Posted in Australia, Canada, DDTC, Defense Trade Controls, Dual/3rd Party Nationals, EU, Federal Register, ITAR, MLA, NATO, TAA, USA Regulations | Comments Off

ITAR Compliance Forces General Motors Canada to Pay

Friday, September 28th, 2007 by John Black

Maybe if you comply with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you can get sued for doing so…

General Motors of Canada Limited was forced to pay an undisclosed amount of money to six workers who complained of discrimination based on their citizenship and place of origin. The six unionized workers were all Canadian citizens or landed immigrants who also held citizenships from other countries. They all worked in a division of GM that manufactured military vehicles. GM Canada used US defense articles and technical data controlled by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to produce these vehicles.

The problem is that the ITAR prohibited GM Canada from allowing the US defense articles and data to be accessed by Canadian landed immigrants (“permanent residents”) or Canadian duals nationals whose original or second country of nationality was from a country considered problematic by the ITAR. Because of this, the six workers who had citizenships in other problem countries were called into a meeting by General Motors and sent home with pay because they did not have the proper clearance to work on the U.S. vehicles from the U.S. State Department.

The six employees eventually were permitted to return to work, but General Motors did not apply for the US State Department for them to legally work on the military vehicles, so GM assigned them to alternative duties.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission brought the workers and General Motors together where they reached a settlement in July 2007. General Motors agreed to pay money to each of the six employees who had been forced to perform alternate duties because of the lack of US State Department approval.

Full article in Canadian Employment Law Today

Posted in Canada, Dual/3rd Party Nationals, Violations & Fines | Comments Off

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