Standard Licensing

Controls on Proposals
Proposals of SME to Foreign Person

  The State Department uses a very broad brush when defining proposal. It is extremely important that your organization understands the need to determine what requirements are needed to meet ITAR §126.8 conditions or if you even need to consider them at all. Prior Notification or Approval may be required from the Department of State if your activity meets several parameters. One of those parameters is the designation of SME. If your organization is working with anything that is SME, that is a good flag to check into the requirements for prior approval or notification.

The thing to remember is to always ask the compliance professional. Attempting to navigate the ever-changing waters of Import and Export compliance without a very good skill set is the most dangerous thing your organization can attempt. Watch for the temptation to read the regulations and interpret them favorably for your organization simply because it is easier. A frequent complaint of the newly initiated into the world of Import and Export regulations is "no one can do business following these regulations; we may as well shut our doors now or not do international business at all." Compliance can be achieved and in fact all the large defense contractors in the U.S. have been maintaining compliance and strict adherence to the laws for many years. This is simply a matter of digesting the requirements and changing the culture of your organization to support compliance, which ultimately supports National Security.