President's Letter
Alice Slayton Clark
WIIT President

The 2004/5 WIIT year is well underway. There have been a number of very successful brown bags, WIIT-wide lunches, socials, and networking events. I send my thanks to the Section and Committee Chairs for their hard work. Read more . . .

Feature Articles—Trade and Security

U.S. Export Controls of Commercial and Dual-use Items
Kathleen Barfield
Export controls have a long history in the United States, reaching back before our first celebration of independence. Since then, the U.S. Government has imposed export controls for a variety of reasons through various regulations. The current authorization for administering and enforcing export controls on most commercial items is the Export Administration Act (EAA) of 1979. The EAA has been amended several times since its establishment, but lapsed in 1994. The government is keeping the Act in force under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Read more . . .

U.S. Government Agencies—website and contact information

Upcoming Seminars—topics, time and locations

The Basics of OFAC Compliance
Erin M. Ghelber
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury administers and enforces economic sanctions based on U.S. foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, and those engaged in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. OFAC acts under Presidential wartime and national emergency powers, as well as authority granted by specific legislation, to impose controls on transactions and block foreign assets under U.S. jurisdiction. Read more . . .

Three Export Control Hot Spots
Sharron Cook
There are three areas of export policy over commercial and dual use goods at the forefront of U.S. policy today. The first is the release of technology to a foreign national within the United States, i.e., deemed exports. The second is the growing trend to implement catch-all controls, i.e., specific end-use or end-user controls intended to control all items, whether currently on the Commerce Control List or not. The third is the expansion of transfer controls, i.e., movement of controlled U.S. origin goods within a foreign country. A few of the reasons for the shift in export policy is the heightened post 9/11 terrorism awareness, industrial espionage, and the growing trend of off-shore manufacturing. Read more . . .

Export Enforcement of Commercial and Dual-use Items
Wendy Wysong
On December 13, 2004, I assumed the dual role of Acting Assistant Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement for the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). Having prosecuted export control cases for eight years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the USAO-DC Transnational/Major Crimes Section, I am very much looking forward to continuing to work in this area, but on a much broader scale. While the individual cases I prosecuted created precedents that could be used as guidance for export practitioners, in my new position at the Department of Commerce-BIS I will be able to determine the direction of enforcement policy on a wider scope than was previously possible. Read more . . .

WIIT Programs Highlighted:

• Professional Development Day 2005
• Supply Chain Security
• The BSE Cases: A Canadian and a U.S. Perspective
• Doing Business in Iraq
• Mercosur: Trading with the Andeans, The U.S., and Others
• Western Hemisphere: Trade & Development: Reviewing 2004 and Looking Forward to 2005
• WIIT’s Monthly Happy Hour
• WIIT’s Language Tables highlighted—Russian, Italian and German