BIS Recommends New Export Screening Steps

Today, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has published new guidance reminding the export community about the dangers of divergence of goods to Russia.  This new BIS guidance outlines additional recommendations for screening transactions.

High Priority List (Including Aircraft Parts)

BIS has identified a list of 50 Common High Priority List (CHPL) items.  These are items that Russia has been procuring to support its weapons programs.  For this reason, these 50 items have been identified as special focus items for scrutiny to avoid divergence of shipments to Russia.  This list includes aircraft parts (particularly those subject to HTSUS 8807.30), bearings (particularly those subject to HTSUS Heading 8482) and certain instruments and appliances subject to HTSUS Heading 9014. Exporters should be sure to look at the full list to get an idea of the full scope of this CHPL list.

The CHPL list is meant to drive a heightened scrutiny of certain transactions, to ensure that they cannot be diverted to Russia.  BIS expects that exporters will ensure compliance for every export, but has asked for extra diligence in the scrutiny applied to transaction in the 50 CHPL articles.

Additional Screening Recommendations

BIS has recommended that for CHPL items, exporters screen the transaction parties against the Trade Integrity Project (TIP) website.

The TIP website includes a list of companies that have exported certain materials into Russia.  TIP was developed by the UK-based Open-Source Centre for monitoring trade with Russia. The TIP website specifically focuses on trade in CHPL items, and displays entities that have shipped CHPL items to Russia since 2023. It is based on publicly available trade data. TIP does not reflect all exports into Russia, and it may not include some companies that have exported aircraft parts into Russia.  The TIP website is meant to support export diligence investigations, but it should not be your only resource.

We have recommended Import Genius as another good resource for identifying companies that have exported goods to Russia; but we have also warned that this is also a starting point for scrutiny; we have heard about U.S. companies who are falsely listed as the source of goods by the actual exporters, so it is important to check out the data you find. Using Import Genius is NOT part of the latest BIS screening recommendation.

If you discover that the partner in question has been selling to Russia, then this may reflect a red flag that needs to be cleared before the transaction can be completed. For example, if you are selling to a distributor who is on the TIP list, but they ask you to drop ship the goods directly to a legal end user in a place like the UK (particularly if you get a signed end-use-statement from the end user validating the compliance elements), then this might be sufficient to clear a red flag that would otherwise casts a shadow over other transactions.

BIS Warning Letters

BIS is issuing two different types of letters to warn companies about their business partners who may be violating US export laws:

• Red Flag Letters
• Is Informed Letters

If BIS believes that one of your partners may have violated the export laws (such as by illegally diverting goods to Russia) then BIS may send you a “red flag” letter. A “red flag” letter informs you of the BIS suspicions, and imposes on your company an additional burden to clear the red flag before continuing to do business with the partner. A company that receives a “red flag” letter should conduct additional due diligence to resolve and overcome the red flag identified by BIS before filling an order from the identified partner.

BIS may inform you that a license is required for export, reexport or transfer of items to a specified end-user because BIS has determined that there is an unacceptable risk of diversion (e.g. because of a threat of diversion to a military end user in a restricted country). This is known as an “Is Informed” letter. When you receive this sort of communication, then you are typically required to comply with the restriction (if the communication is oral then it will usually be followed by a written communication within two days). In most cases, this means that you will need a license for the transaction, and it may cancel prior licenses. From an enforcement perspective, non-compliance with an “is informed letter” is treated the same as non-compliance with any other license requirement under the regulations and may be subject to penalties.

If you receive a “red flag” letter or an “is informed” letter than you should coordinate your actions with an export attorney.