BIS Expands Sanctions Against Russia and Belarus

April 15, 2022 by Leave a comment

Yesterday, BIS announced its latest round of sanctions against Russia and Belarus arising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We have written about previous BIS sanctions against Russia and Belarus over the past several weeks. The previous rounds of sanctions imposed, among other things, a license requirement for all articles controlled under CCL categories 3 through 9 under a new § 746.8 of the EAR.

The latest sanctions expand that license requirement under § 746.8 to now include CCL categories 0 through 2 as well. Thus, any item specified under any ECCN is subject to an export license requirement. Although this may not seem like a broad expansion of the licensing requirements as far as aircraft parts distribution is concerned, it is important to note that many bearings are controlled under CCL 2 and certain seals, gaskets, sealants and fuel bladders specially designed for aircraft or aerospace are controlled under CCL 1. These items now require a license to Russia or Belarus.

The sanctions also further limit the availability of License Exception AVS paragraphs (a) and (b) to aircraft registered in, owned or controlled by, or under charter or lease by Belarus or a national of Belarus (bringing it in line with limitations on the exception already applicable to Russia and Russian nationals). We can therefore not rely on License Exception AVS–a commonly used license exception–to support a Russian or Belarusian aircraft.

The United States continues to impose additional sanctions as a result of the war in Ukraine. We will keep members updated as new sanctions that affect distributors arise.

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More Russia Sanctions Highlight the Importance of the Consolidated Screening List

March 4, 2022 by 1 Comment

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) will be publishing a new list of Russia-sanctions targets next week. This list includes aerospace companies outside of Russia! This highlights the importance of checking your export business partners against the consolidated screening list for EVERY transaction.

Here is just a small portion of the companies that are being added to the sanctions lists, to show you that aerospace is part of the sanctions plan:

  • State Governmental Scientific Testing Area of Aircraft Systems (GkNIPAS)
  • Federal State Enterprise State Research and Testing Ground for Aviation Systems named after L.K. Safronov
  • Incoff Aerospace S.R.O.
  • Russian Space Systems (RKS)

There are also numerous research and development facilities that have been added to the BIS restricted lists. In all of these cases, there is a presumption of denial on license applications.

In addition, it appears that ship-building, oil & gas, and telecommunications industries are also being targeted in this latest round of sanctions.

The new sanctioned entities are expected to be published in the Federal Register on March 9; however the sanctions will relate back to the first date on which they were made ‘available’ to the public. They were placed on-line late last night so expect the sanctions to apply as of March 3, 2022!

We strongly recommend checking your business partners against the consolidated screening list for EVERY export transaction. Even if you checked them for a transaction yesterday, you should check them again today to make sure that they remain clear for today’s transaction.

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