Commerce Unverified List Grows

Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a rule adding 32 parties in eleven countries to the Unverified List (UVL).   

BIS is taking this action because it is unable to establish the bona fides – i.e., legitimacy and reliability relating to the end use or end user of items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) – of these parties for reasons outside of the U.S. Government’s control.

“It is critical that BIS is able to conduct end-use checks to determine compliance with U.S. export control rules,” said Assistant Secretary Matthew S. Axelrod.  “Where we cannot verify the bona fides of foreign parties, we will continue to add parties to the Unverified List to place restrictions on future export transactions and prevent the diversion of U.S. items.” 

Failure to establish an entity’s bona fides, which may include an inability to contact or locate the party, failure by the party to appropriately demonstrate the disposition of items subject to the EAR, or lack of cooperation by a host government with BIS’s conduct of end-use checks. 

Listing on the UVL does not mean that exporters cannot engage with listed parties.  However, transactions with parties on the UVL require, among other things, additional documentation, including a statement from authorized officials of listed parties, and such transactions are not eligible for authorization pursuant to EAR license exceptions.  

The UVL (supplement no. 6 to part 744) is one of several lists, including the Entity List (supplement no. 4 to part 744) and the Military End User List (supplement no. 7 to part 744), administered and maintained by BIS.  These lists inform exporters and the general public of end-users that are of concern for various reasons, and that are subject to specific requirements or prohibitions in the EAR.  

The entities are located in: Bulgaria, Canada, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the People’s Republic of China (14), Germany (2), Turkey (4), and the United Arab Emirates (5). The text of the rule, which is effective upon publication and includes the names of the entities added to the UVL, is available here.