Today, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) imposed  additional export control restrictions on Myanmar (Burma) in response to the recent military coup in that country.  BIS previewed the new restrictions in an announcement  last month when the U.S. imposed sanctions on the country's military leadership.  Today's changes include the following:

  1. BIS added the Burmese Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Myanmar Economic Corporation, and Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited to the U.S. Entity List.  U.S. and non-U.S. companies are prohibited from exporting, reexporting or transferring items subject to the Export Administration regulations (EAR) to these entities without prior approval from BIS.  License requests related to the sanctioned entities will be reviewed by BIS under a presumption of denial.
  2. BIS added Burma to the list of countries subject to 'military end use' and 'military end user' (MEU) restrictions under § 744.21 of the EAR.  The change will require exporters to acquire a license from BIS before exporting, reexporting, or transferring certain products to military end uses or end users in Burma.
  3. BIS limited the number of license exceptions available for Burma by moving the country from Country Group B into the more restrictive Country Group D:1 and from Computer Tier 1 and into Computer Tier 3 under License Exception Computers (APP), § 740.7.
  4. BIS will examine all export license requests related to Burma for the risk of diversion to military end users and military end uses pursuant to § 742.4(b)(7) of the EAR.  Licenses that are for civil end users and civil end uses will generally be approved, but license applications related to military applications will face a presumption of denial.

Companies doing business in Burma should examine these new rules closely and continue to monitor U.S. regulatory developments affecting the country.

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