BIS Being Pushed to Issue Foreign Direct Product Rule Guidance

An industry advisory committee is planning to push the Bureau of Industry and Security to release guidance on how companies should be applying the agency’s various foreign direct product rules.

A member of the agency's Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee, speaking during a meeting last week, said the group plans to recommend soon that BIS issue FDP rule guidance to help companies more uniformly apply license restrictions under the rule, which generally places export controls on certain foreign goods made with certain U.S.-origin software, parts or technology. The RPTAC member also said BIS should evaluate the impact of its various FDP rules, including rules covering companies on the Entity List, Russia and Belarus, Iran, advanced chips and 600 series list munitions.

A lack of FDP rule guidance “leads to differing outcomes by different companies applying the rule,” the RPTAC member said. He said the group may make more recommendations related to the FDP rule next year.