U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security amends EAR, proposes new rule, and requests comments

On 29th October 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by revising the review policy for licenses of items controlled due to national security reasons with a destination of the People's Republic of China, Venezuela, or the Russian Federation.

Additionally, on 6th November 2020, BIS published a proposed rule regarding Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) 2B352. This proposed rule states that “software” used to operate nucleic acid assemblers and synthesizers is capable of designing and building functional genetic elements from digital sequence data and could be used for biological weapons. The proposed ruling would control the export of this emerging technology and BIS requests comments about this ruling to be submitted by 21st December 2020.