On January 12, 2021, the US Department of Commerce issued a final rule (the âFinal Ruleâ) amending the Export Administration Regulations (âEARâ) to implement recent licensing review policy changes for exports of US-origin unmanned aerial systems (âUASâ), also known as âdrones.â Our prior blog posts on UAS export policy developments are available here and here. The Final Rule implements the more flexible export license review policy applicable to a specific subset of UAS with maximum…
On July 24, 2020, the Trump Administration announced a new policy (the âUpdated UAS Policyâ) on exports of US-origin unmanned aerial systems (âUASâ), also known as âdrones.â The Updated UAS Policy follows the Trump Administrationâs UAS policy reforms announced in April 2018 (âApril 2018 UAS Export Policyâ), which allowed exports of certain US-origin armed and unarmed UAS to occur via direct sales between US companies and foreign end users. Our previous blog post on the…
On April 19, the US Government issued a fact sheet outlining a new policy (the âNew UAS Policyâ) on exports of US-origin unmanned aerial systems (âUASâ) and a new National Security Presidential Memorandum (âNSPMâ) updating the United States Conventional Arms Transfer Policy (the âNew CAT Policyâ). These changes do not directly impact the export licensing requirements on UAS under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (âITARâ) or the Export Administration Regulations (âEARâ). However, according to statements made in a press briefing on these developments, the new policies reflect the Trump Administrationâs interest in enabling US manufacturers of UAS to âlevel the playing fieldâ and increase exports of these products to US allies and partners. They also evidence a broader effort to increase considerations of economic interests in arms transfer decisions.