ITAR Updates Incoming: Broker Reports, Prior Approval and Payment Disclosures

Notices would renew PRA approvals for annual broker reports and prior-approval requests under ITAR Part 129.

The State Department has moved to renew two Directorate of Defense Trade Controls information collections central to the ITAR brokering regime, seeking public comment on the paperwork burden.

Another amendment to ease disclosure requirements linked to fees, commissions and political contributions under ITAR Part 130 is on the horizon.

The Part 129 notices, scheduled for publication April 6, would extend existing approvals rather than create new requirements,  

In the first notice, State said the “Annual Brokering Report” collection, OMB Control No. 1405-0141, covers brokers required to register under ITAR Part 129 and file annual reports describing covered brokering activity.

These reports enumerate approved brokering activities by quantity, type, dollar value, purchaser or recipient, and license number, as well as exemptions used for other covered activities. 

The second notice covers “Brokering Prior Approval (License),” OMB Control No. 1405-0142, which State described as an extension of the currently approved collection for requests submitted on Form DS-4294.

Under the notice, U.S. and foreign persons seeking to engage in ITAR-controlled brokering of defense articles or defense services must register with DDTC and obtain the agency’s consent before engaging in such activity unless an exemption applies. 

Prior-approval requests may be filed electronically through DDTC’s Defense Export Control and Compliance System, while annual brokering reports are submitted with statement-of-registration renewals.

On March 27 DDTC sent a third potential regulatory change for interagency review. The agency described it as an action “to amend part 130 of the regulations to increase the threshold value for transactions requiring reporting of information and revise reporting requirements from transactional to annual.”

The agency has weighed changes to Part 130 several times over the years, and asked the Defense Trade Advisory Group to look into reforms on four occasions between 2020 and 2022. Holland & Knight partner Christopher Stagg called the forthcoming rule "a product of those efforts," in a statement.

"Part 130 has been one of the most widely sought areas of the ITAR for reform, so many in industry will be eager to see the proposed rule and provide comments," he told The Export Practitioner.