The Wassenaar Arrangement’s (WA) made up of a group of 41 countries that are committed to promoting responsibility and transparency in global arms trade and to preventing destabilizing accumulations of arms. Each year, in December, WA signatories meet to discuss necessary revisions to the Wassenaar Arrangement of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies list. The Wassenaar list is used by member countries as a basis for implementing controls on dual-use goods and technologies.
While the most recent changes to the list took effect immediately at the December 2014 Plenary meeting, each individual signatory country makes the necessary changes to their country control regimes to include the Plenary meeting changes at various times. On May 21, 2015 the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced that the U.S. Commerce Control List (CCL) was being revised to include the changes made to the WA’s List of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies based on the 2014 Plenary meeting.
The CCL has been revised to include 42 Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs), adding one ECCN, removing one ECCN, and amending, adding or revising certain notes and definitions. The Country Group A Column 1 has also been replaced with the successor national security export regime for WA Participating States. Additionally, the second national security and regional stability columns have been amended to harmonize with each other, and changes have been made based on risk of diversion to unauthorized end-users, authorized end-uses or destinations.
Of major significance to Livingston’s high tech clients is the change to encryption export controls under ECCN 5A002. A Note under 5A002 lists a number of items that are controlled under 5A992. Two new items have been added to this list. Paragraph (l) adds routers, switches or relays where the encryption functionality in those items is limited to “Operations, Administration or Maintenance”, also known as OAM functions. Paragraph (m) adds general purpose computing equipment or servers using published or commercial encryption functionality from embedded CPUs and/or operating systems, or limited to OAM functions. These two additions allow Livingston high tech clients to export these items under the lesser controlled 5A992 ECCN, giving them greater flexibility than they currently have when using License Exception ENC to export these items.
It is important to note, however, that the 2014 Wassenaar changes have not yet been incorporated into Canada’s Export Controls regulations. Although Canada is committed to the Wassenaar Arrangement in the same manner as the U.S. is, implementation dates can vary from country to country. This period between its implementation in the U.S. and Canada can cause complications as goods, such as routers limited to OAM functions, will be controlled differently by each country until such a time as Canada applies the mandated changes.