Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

In a final rule published at 89 FR 84766 (FR Doc 2024-23932), the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to remove BIS licence requirements on certain spacecraft and related items — including remote-sensing spacecraft and on-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (OSAM) items — for exports and reexports to Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The rule is effective immediately on publication (23 October 2024) and is part of a three-rule package modernising the US space-related export-control regime (companion IFR 2024-23958 broadens controls relief for ~40 additional destinations; companion proposed rule 2024-23975 floats a new License Exception Commercial Space Activities). The AU/CA/UK carve-out builds on the trilateral National Technology and Industrial Base (NTIB) framework.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued an interim final rule (IFR) amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to remove list-based license requirements — including National Security Column 1 (NS1), Regional Stability Column 1 (RS1) and Missile Technology Column 1 (MT1) reasons-for-control — for exports, reexports and in-country transfers to or within Australia and the United Kingdom. The IFR also expands the availability of license exceptions and reduces the scope of end-use and end-user-based license requirements for the two AUKUS partners, while leaving firearms-related items (Crime Control / CC) and a narrow set of other ECCNs untouched. The rule is the EAR-side companion to a parallel DDTC proposed rule creating an ITAR §126.7 exemption for defense articles and services traded among authorised AU/UK/US users, and is the foundational regulatory implementation of the AUKUS Pillar 2 advanced-capability cooperation track.

The Defence Trade Controls Amendment Act 2024 (C2024A00021) received Royal Assent on 8 April 2024 and created three new criminal offences in the Defence Trade Controls Act 2012: section 10A (supply of Defence and Strategic Goods List technology in Australia to a non-exempt foreign person); section 10B (secondary supply of DSGL Part 1 Munitions or Part 2 Dual-Use Sensitive/Very Sensitive goods or technology outside Australia when originally exported from Australia); and section 10C (provision of DSGL Part 1 services to foreign nationals outside Australia). All three offences carry maximum penalties of 10 years imprisonment or 2,500 penalty units (~A$782,500), or both. The offence framework commenced 1 September 2024 with a six-month compliance-transition period; criminal liability attached from 1 March 2025. The Act also codifies AUKUS-partnership exemptions, carving out supplies to and from citizens and permanent residents of the United Kingdom and United States, underpinning the licence-free trilateral technology-transfer environment sought under AUKUS Pillar 2.

On 4 April 2022 Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs registered the Autonomous Sanctions (Export Sanctioned Goods—Russia) Amendment (No.1) Designation 2022, made under the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011. It amended the existing Export Sanctioned Goods—Russia designation to add further categories of goods to the list of items whose export, supply or transfer to Russia is prohibited, extending an export-ban regime introduced in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It took effect on registration.

Australia designated aluminium ores (including bauxite), alumina and aluminium hydroxide as "export sanctioned goods" for Russia under the Autonomous Sanctions (Export Sanctioned Goods -- Russia) Designation 2022, banning their export from Australia to Russia effective 20 March 2022. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the measure a day earlier as part of Australia's response to the invasion of Ukraine, framing it as an attack on Russia's aluminium industry, which sourced roughly 20% of its alumina from Australian supply. Rusal, Russia's dominant aluminium producer, was identified as the primary target.