Implementation of the February 2020 Australia Group Intersessional Decisions: Addition of Certain Rigid-Walled, Single-Use Cultivation Chambers and Precursor Chemicals to the Commerce Control List

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) publishes this final rule to amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement the decisions made at the February 2020 Australia Group (AG) Intersessional Implementation Meeting, and those later adopted pursuant to the AG's silence procedure. Specifically, this rule amends Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) 1C350, 1C351 and 2B352 on the Commerce Control List (CCL) to reflect these AG changes. ECCN 1C350 is amended by adding twenty-four precursor chemicals, as well as mixtures in which at least one of these chemicals constitutes 30 percent or more of the weight of the mixture, to ECCN 1C350.d. ECCN 1C351 is amended to add Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-related coronavirus). ECCN 2B352 is amended by adding a Technical Note to indicate that cultivation chamber holding devices controlled in 2B352.b.2.b include single-use cultivation chambers with rigid walls. The items addressed by this final rule were not previously listed on the CCL or controlled multilaterally. BIS, consistent with the interagency process described in the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (ECRA), identified the precursor chemicals and single-use cultivation chambers addressed by this final rule as emerging technologies that are essential to U.S. national security and for which effective controls can be implemented. The inclusion of such items in this final rule is consistent with the requirements of ECRA and the decision of the AG to add such items to its common control lists, thereby making exports of such items subject to multilateral control (following the implementation of these changes by individual AG participating countries, including the United States).