Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Meeting (SITAC)
MINUTES OF MEETING
April 26, 2016
9:30 a.m., Room 3884
U.S. Department of Commerce
Bureau of Industry and Security
Washington, DC 20230
- The SITAC meeting was held at the Department of Commerce in Room 3884 from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm. There was a closed session for this meeting.
Open Session:
- The open session covered the following topics:
1. Welcome and Introductions.
2. Remarks from the Bureau of Industry and Security Management.
3. Industry Presentations.
4. New Business.
- Welcome and Introductions.
- The SITAC chair, Mr. Steve Tribble opened the meeting with an introduction of the attendees.
o Members/Contractors of the United States Government (USG) attending this meeting included Dr. Christopher Costanzo (DFO), John Varesi (BIS, Engineer), Thomas Langhorne (BIS, Licensing Officer), Mark Jaso (BIS, Engineer), Steve Emme (BIS), and Matthew Borman (BIS, Deputy Assistant Secretary).
o A number of companies were represented at this meeting including Ion Geophysical Corp (Rob Leger, Director Sales Operations), Sofradir EC (Michelle Intiso, Export Compliance Manger), DRS Tech (Greg Hill, VP Trade Compliance), Princeton Instruments (Manjul Shah, OEM Manager), Nufern (Anthony Rallo, Legal Counsel), Pacific Advanced Technologies (SITAC Member Michelle Hinnrichs, CEO), FLIR Systems (Nancy Boughton, VP Global Trade), BAI Inc. (Perry Cox, Analyst), BAI (SITAC Member James Thompson), nLight (Ray Wick, Consultant), Maxtech International (Gabe Fulop, President), UTC Aerospace (Doug Malchow, Business Development Manager), SPIE (Jennifer Douris, Government Affairs Officer), GPD Optoelectronics (George Gasparian, Application Engineer), ePhysics Tech (Frank Vallese, CEO), McAllister and Quinn (Chris Fish, Vice President), ClearAlign (Dr. Jonathan Kane , CTO), Fluke Thermography (Matthew Schmidt, Director), and Pressco Technologies (Scott Johnston, Director Manufacturing)
o Several companies teleconferenced into the meeting including Quasar Federal Systems (Bob Fagaly), Ametek (Jimmy Wade), Vectronix (James Lane, Director Contracts and Compliance), Elbit Systems of America (Karen Wyman, Trade Compliance Manager), Scott Safety (Deborah Allen, Trade Compliance Manager), and UTC Aerospace (Michael Wetzel, Manager Export Strategy).
o The press was represented by Meredith Gilsten (Export Practioner, editor).
- Remarks from the Bureau of Industry and Security Management:
Mr. Borman summarized the key parts of the proposed rule and how the comments were reviewed. He stated that he hoped that the final rule would get to OMB within 8 weeks.
Dr. Christopher Costanzo provided mentioned that the USG is continuing to work on the USML rewrite for Category 12 and then provided a summary of the Bureau’s licensing statistics for Lasers (ECCN 6A005), Cameras (ECCN 6A003), and Sensors (ECCN 6A002):
ECCN 6A005 lasers.
10/1/15 – 4/25/16
Total of 86 export applications were processed and valued at $92,745,746. Of these 50 were approved, 0 were denied, and 36 were RWA’d. The top destination for 6A005 items by dollar value were China ($85M) and Thailand ($6M).
10/1/14 – 4/25/15
Total of 87 export applications were processed and valued at $36,751,589.
ECCN 6A003 cameras.
10/1/15 – 4/25/16
Total of 448 export applications were processed and valued at $253,791,459. Of these 375 were approved, 2 were denied, and 71 were RWA’d. The top destination for 6A003 items by dollar value were the United Arab Emirates ($149M), Brazil ($35M), Germany ($28M), China ($23M), and the UK ($10M).
10/1/14 – 4/25/15
Total of 368 export applications were processed and valued at $30,882,585.
ECCN 6A002 optical sensors.
10/1/15 – 4/25/16
Total of 24 export applications were approved and valued at $3,015,210. Of these 16 were approved, none denied, and 8 RWA’d. The top destination for 6A002 items by dollar value were South Korea ($19M), Colombia ($2M), and the Russian Federation ($2M).
10/1/14 – 4/25/15
Total of 40 export applications were processed and valued at $25,094,224.
- Presentations:
o None.
- New Business:
o None.
- Steve Tribble adjourned the open session and after a short break began the closed session.
Closed Session.
o Mr. Borman discussed each part of the rule and explained how the various agencies viewed the changes. He mentioned that there were still outstanding issues which the agencies did not agree on including how to describe military IRST systems. He explained that individuals at DTSA were concerned with unlicensed exports to Canada of certain dual use items as well. DTSA was still arguing to remove the STA LE for cores and wanted to eliminate the de minimus provision for 0A919 items. Mr. Borman re-iterated that when entering into contracts with the USG, that industry should be clear about their intentions to develop an item. By stating the purpose was to market to civil and military customers, that it would help in supporting the BIS arguments for CCL jurisdiction if a formal CJ is requested. He also mentioned that there was still disagreement on language to describe USML gimbals. Finally he said that BIS re-inserted the UTIC rule after reviewing comments claiming that it was an important construct that exporters were using.
o Summary of WA activities.
o Mr. Tribble then adjourned the closed session of the April SITAC meeting.
