China Summit on Export Controls Compliance

On April 19 - 21, export control seminar will be held in Beijing. The topic of this seminar is broad in export compliance, US export control, Asia export control, China regulation, encryption control, ICP, training to employees and more! I will be one of the speakers in workshop B on April 19 as Bryan Cave representative, and make presentation mainly for Japanese export control. The registration fee can be discounted by referring my name (because I'm a speaker). If any of the blog reader is interested in this seminar, please let me know.

About the seminar: http://www.americanconference.com/ChinaExport.htm

"After the tremendous success of its export controls conferences in Europe and the United States, ACI and C5 Group are proud to announce the inaugural China Summit on Export Controls Compliance in Beijing. Attendees will benefit from the practical perspective of 21 seasoned corporate export compliance executives from companies such as AMD, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment, Airbus, Dresser, General Electric, General Motors, Huawei, Hydra-Electric, IBM, Invensys, Intel, Microsoft, Norinco, Tektronix, Sun Microsystems, SMIC, Texas Instrument. Get an update on regulatory and policy initiatives from top Government officials and learn how industry is setting up internal controls to comply in this constantly changing global legal landscape. The agenda will include the latest information on

• Implementing an internal export controls compliance program for China operations
• How to identify whether your customer is a reliable party
• Minimizing risks when exporting technology to foreign third parties
• Train employees to prevent export violations
• Incorporate Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore export controls requirements into your overall plan
• Using license exception for products which encryption is not core function

Participants will also receive a comprehensive set of written materials prepared by the speakers particularly for this conference. These are invaluable reference materials which you will use again and again long after the conference is over.

Register now to ensure your place at this unique export controls compliance benchmarking event in China. Call 1-888-224-2480 in the US, or 44 7878 6888 in Europe."

Japan implement both Wassenaar 2008 and 2009 lists at once

On April 01, 2010, Japan will update its export control list to reflect recent change of international regimes, such as NSG, AG, MTCR and Wassenaar Arrangement ("WA").
The relevant Ministerial Ordinance and Notifications for stipulating updated export control list was announced on March 05, 2010.

As for WA dual-use items, last list change was October 2009. It was to reflect WA 2007 list.
Now Japan will implement both 2008 and 2009 list at once on April 01, 2010.

This is significant change of list update, as change including 2 years equivalent lists at once is not so usual.

For example, as for 4A003.b, the technical bar level is APP 0.75WT, which reflect WA 2008 list.

"US EAR 4A003.b: “Digital computers” having an “Adjusted Peak Performance” (“APP”) exceeding 0.75 weighted TeraFLOPS (WT);"

In Japan's new list, the equivalent category is APP1.5WT by reflecting WA 2009 list.

Another example is Category 5 - part 2. In WA 2009 list update is to reduce the scope of category 5 part 2 note 4 “ancillary cryptography”. The direct result of this new definition is that lots of cryptography items are no longer controlled by the dual use list of Wassenaar if the primary functions of goods, software or technology is not information security. Typical examples are items for gaming, car accessories, and home electrical goods etc which contain encryption but not sending/receiving encryption via network with outside. Accordingly, Japan will implement this exemption rule of encryption items from April this year by stipulating it into Notification called "Unyo Tsutatsu (for goods)" and "Ekimu Tsutatsu (for software and service)".

In Japanese classification practice, to fill in item's technical specification into Parameter sheet is popular procedure. Many companies will be busy for re-newing new parameter sheet and review its classification in these months.

EU & Vietnam Agree to Start FTA Talks

According to Nikkei Newspaper today, European Union (“EU”) and Vietnam have agreed to launch bilateral Free Trade Agreement (“FTA”) negotiations.

EU and Vietnamese officials will now work together towards the formal start of negotiations as well as an agreed framework for the talks to reach an FTA.

EU have already started bilateral FTA negotiation with Singapore, as reported in this blog in December 2009. As regional FTA (EU-Asean) is stuck with issues and difference of opinions from various parties, EU looks like making shift to bilateral FTA with each Asean country where possible.