Washington, DC -(AmmoLand.com)- On August 11, 2016, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) announced its newest revision to the Guidelines for Preparing Agreements (“Agreement Guidelines”), Revision 4.4, which will become effective September 1, 2016.
Along with the revision, DDTC also posted a summary of changes. The changes will bring the Agreement Guidelines in line with certain revisions to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) that will also take effect on September 1, 2016, as discussed in 81 FR 35611.
Highlights of the changes are as follows:
- Various sections of the Agreement Guidelines have been updated to reflect the new definitions for the terms “export,” “reexport” and “retransfer” that will go into effect on September 1.
- Revision of Section 3.5: Dual/Third Country National (DN/TCN) to remove § 124.16 from Option 2, add references to § 126.18(d) in Option 1, redact the term “retransfer” from the guidance and required statements, remove country of birth as a consideration when vetting DN/TCNs via Option 2, update the required agreement statements for DN/TCN requests pursuant to § 124.8(5), and remove the optional agreement statement for § 126.1 non-(a) TCN requests.
- The required statements throughout the Agreement Guidelines are updated, including the statement on sublicensing to U.S. Persons, the required statements for DN/TCN requests pursuant to § 124.8(5), and the § 124.8(5) verbatim clause.
- Templates in Appendix A are updated to remove the § 124.12(a)(10) statement from the transmittal letter, remove the § 124.16 statement from the agreement, and update the required statements mentioned above.
It should be noted that DDTC will not require companies to submit an amendment for the sole purpose of updating existing agreements with these changes. However, the updates must be made at the next major amendment.
Applicants may begin using the new statements prior to September 1, 2016. Beginning September 1, 2016, all agreement/amendment applications must include these changes, as applicable, so it is important that applicants use the most current version of the Agreement Guidelines when preparing agreements or amendments.
If an agreement is submitted without the updated statements, DDTC will include a proviso to the approval instructing a change to the agreement/amendment prior to its execution.
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