House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Transshipment and Diversion Issues

The House Foreign Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade held a hearing today on transhipment issues. The witnesses at the hearing, entitled "Transshipment and Diversion: Are U.S. Trading Partners Doing Enough to Prevent the Spread of Dangerous Technologies?" included Assistant Secretary for Export Administration Kevin Wolf and Vann H. Van Diepen, Acting Assistant Secretary at the State Department's Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation.

The following are some highlights included in the prepared testimony of the witnesses:

• In Fiscal Year 2009, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) processed 20,351 export license applications valued at approximately $62.4 billion for items subject to the EAR.
• In Fiscal Year 2009, BIS conducted 42 domestic export control outreach seminars in 18 states to provide new and experienced exporters about the requirements of the EAR and how they should deal with “Red Flags”.
• BIS led or participated with the Department of State in 28 meetings with foreign governments in Fiscal Year 2009.
• State Department recognizes diversion "as a major weakness in trade security and therefore have been working for many years--and on many fronts--to properly address this problem and minimize the risk. We have had some success, but more work is necessary."
• "Part of the challenge is a lack of political will to implement and enforce export and transshipment controls. This is due to the misperception that such controls are bad for legitimate business and this is particularly common in countries reliant on revenue from port operations."

The complete written testimony of Messrs. Wolf and Van Diepen can be found here and here.