Revisions to the Export Administration Regulations; Conforming Revisions to the Wassenaar Arrangement List of Dual-Use Items and Revisions to Antiterrorism Controls

On January 15, 1998, the Bureau of Export Administration published an interim rule implementing the Wassenaar Arrangement List of Dual-Use Items. Implementation of the Wassenaar List resulted in a number of changes to the Commerce Control List (CCL). The major changes involved the removal of national security controls on certain items, while maintaining controls on these items for antiterrorism reasons. Consistent with this revision, various antiterrorism Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) were enlarged to accommodate the items removed from national security controls. An easy-to-follow pattern was developed to track the movement of these items. Items formerly classified as a XX001 entry, now default into a xx991 entry. In addition, the January 15 rule moved items from one ECCN into another, or merged two or more ECCNs together. This was done to simplify the CCL and place together items that fall within the same general category. For example, ECCN 9A992 (off-highway tractors) was merged with ECCN 9A993 (on-highway tractors) to form part of a new ECCN 9A990 that also includes diesel engines. This rule amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by making the necessary conforming revisions throughout the text of the EAR, consistent with the January 15 revisions to the CCL.