United States Imposes New Russia-Related Export Restrictions – International Law

On February 24, 2022, in response to Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry
and Security (BIS) issued a final rule, “Implementation of
Sanctions Against Russia Under the Export Administration
Regulations (EAR),” adding new Russia export license
requirements and making licensing policies more stringent. The
final rule is effective as of February 24.

These export restrictions are expansive. Companies should review
the products they export directly and indirectly to Russia to
determine if the exports now require a license. Both the products
themselves and the end-users may activate the restrictions under
the expanded export controls.

The new measures introduced with the final rule include but are
not limited to:

1. Making all items listed in Categories 3-9 of the Commerce
   Control List (CCL) subject to a license requirement for
   Russia;




2. Creating two new foreign “direct product” rules (FDP
   Rules) specific to Russia and Russian military end-users;




3. Making the license review policies generally more stringent for
   Russia, with certain limited exceptions;




4. Imposing significant restrictions on the use of EAR license
   exceptions;




5. Expanding the existing Russia military end-use and military
   end-user scope to all items subject to the EAR, with limited
   exceptions;




6. Moving several MEUs to the Entity List; and




7. Imposing comprehensive export, reexport and transfer
   (in-country) restrictions for the so-called…