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The United States controls exports of crime control items, as required by Section 6(n) of the Act, to reflect its concerns about the human rights situation in various parts of the world.
The United States requires a license to export most crime control and detection instruments, equipment, related technology and software to any destination, except Australia, Japan, New Zealand and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). On September 13, 2000, the Department of Commerce published a regulation in the Federal Register which changes the scope of license requirements for some crime control items, including restraint type devices (such as handcuffs and shackles) and discharge type arms (such as stun guns and shock batons) to include all destinations except Canada. This rule also created unique ECCN classifications for saps, police helmets and shields, fingerprint inks and dyes and technology for restraint-type items. The rule also modified U.S. licensing policy to include the consideration of civil disorder in a given country or region in licensing decisions.
In general, no crime control items may be exported to a country in which the government engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights. For all other countries, the U.S. Government will consider applications for crime control items favorably, on a case-by-case basis, unless there is civil disorder in the country or region concerned; or, unless there is evidence that the government of the importing country may have violated internationally recognized human rights and that the judicious use of export controls would be helpful in minimizing regional instability, deterring the development of a consistent pattern of such violations or in distancing the United States from such violations. The
September 2000 rule modified U.S. licensing policy to include civil disorder as a consideration.
The United States requires a license to export specially designed implements of torture and thumbscrews, subsets of the crime control category, to any destination, with a policy of denial for all applications.
Following the military assault on demonstrators by the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in June 1989, the United States imposed constraints on the export of certain items on the Commerce Control List (CCL). Section 902(a)(4) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for FY 1990-1991, Public Law 101-246, suspends the issuance of licenses under Section 6(n) of the Act for the export of any crime control or detection instruments or equipment to the PRC. The President may terminate the suspension by reporting to Congress that China has made progress on political reform or that it is in the national interest of the United States to terminate the suspension.
The United States, subject to narrow exceptions, denies applications to export U.S. Munitions List commodities and certain crime control items to Indonesia, consistent with Section 582 of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs 1995 Appropriations and 1994 Supplemental Appropriations Act (Public Law 103-306), and Administration policy.
In July 1998, the Department of Commerce published a regulation implementing controls on the export and reexport of crowd control items, including water cannons, explosives and many crime control items to Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). These controls are pursuant to the United Nations (U.N.) Arms Embargo of Serbia. The United States Government reviews applications for export or reexport of these items to Serbia or Montenegro with a presumption of denial. If the United Nations modifies its arms embargo of Serbia, the licensing policy on crime control items will be reviewed accordingly.
On April 13, 1999, the Department of Commerce published an interim rule in the Federal Register implementing the provisions of the Organization of American States (OAS) Model Regulations for the Control of the International Movement of Firearms. These regulations are designed to harmonize import and export controls over the legal international movement of firearms and to establish procedures to prevent the illegal trafficking of firearms between OAS member countries.
Under these provisions, the United States imposed new foreign policy controls on all OAS member countries for the export of certain firearms, including shotguns and parts, buckshot, shotgun shells and parts, and optical sighting devices for firearms. The United States previously required a license for the export of all these items to all OAS member countries with the exception of Canada, but now the United States requires a license to export these items to all OAS member countries, including Canada. In support of the OAS Model Regulations, the United States imposed an Import Certificate (IC) requirement on the export to all OAS member countries of those items affected by the regulations. In general, the Department of Commerce approves license applications for the export of firearms to OAS member countries if the application is supported by an IC. The Department of Commerce denies applications that involve end uses linked to drug trafficking, terrorism, international organized crime, mercenary and other criminal activities.
The Department of State annually compiles the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The Department of State prepares this report in accordance with Sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, for submission to Congress. The factual information presented in this report is a significant element in licensing recommendations made by the Department of State.
The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) calls for the President to take diplomatic or other appropriate action with respect to any country that engages in or tolerates violation of religious freedom. The Act also provides for the imposition of economic measures or commensurate actions when a country has engaged in systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom accompanied by flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons, such as torture, enforced and arbitrary disappearances, or arbitrary prolonged detention. For such countries, IRFA provides that the Commerce Department, with State Department concurrence, shall include on the Commerce Control List for reasons of crime control or detection, and require export licenses for, items that are being used or are intended for use directly and in significant measure to carry out particularly severe violations of religious freedom. In accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act, crime control items are not licensed for export to any country, the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of human rights.
On November 3, 1999, the Department of State published a notice in the Federal Register pursuant to Section 408(a) of the IRFA, stating that the Secretary of State had designated Burma, China, Iran, Iraq and Sudan as "countries of particular concern" for engaging in, or tolerating, particularly severe violations of religious freedom. The Commerce Department implements the IRFA sanctions that apply to exports and reexports of items subject to its jurisdiction to these destinations.
These controls seek to ensure that U.S.-origin police equipment is not exported to countries whose governments do not respect internationally recognized human rights, or where civil disorder is prevalent. Denial of export license applications to such countries helps to prevent the United States from being associated with other countries' human rights violations and sends a clear signal about U.S. human rights concerns in these countries.
Controls on implements of torture are largely symbolic, but ensure that no items of this nature are exported from the United States. No applications for export of "specially designed" implements of torture have been received. If any were received, they would not be approved.
1. Probability of Achieving the Intended Foreign Policy Purpose. The lack of complementary controls by other producer nations means that these controls have limited effectiveness. Nevertheless, the controls do restrict human-rights violators' access to U.S.-origin goods and provides important symbolic evidence of U.S. support for the principles of human rights.
2. Compatibility with Foreign Policy Objectives. This control program is fully consistent with U.S. policy in support of internationally recognized human rights, as expressed by successive Administrations and by the Congress.
3. Reaction of Other Countries. These controls are unique, serve a distinct foreign policy purpose, and arise out of deeply held convictions. Other countries do not have equivalent regulations, but many have restrictions on exports of lethal products to areas of civil unrest.
4. Economic Impact on United States Industry. In FY 2000, the United States approved 1,826 export license applications worth $121,343,094 for crime control items to all destinations. Table 1 lists the total number and value (by ECCN) of export licenses that the United States issued for crime control items during FY 2000.
ECCN |
Items Controlled |
Applications Approved |
$ Value |
|---|---|---|---|
0A978 |
Saps |
0 |
$ 0 |
0A979 |
Police helmets & shields |
3 |
$ 94,856 |
0A982 |
Thumbcuffs, leg irons, shackles, handcuffs |
188 |
$ 7,935,030 |
0A983 |
Specially designed implements of torture |
0 |
$ 0 |
0A984 |
Shotguns & buckshot shotgun shells |
814 |
$ 30,010,304 |
0A985 |
Discharge type arms (stun guns, shock batons, etc.) |
61 |
$ 6,699,908 |
0A987 |
Optical sighting devices |
516 |
$ 39,350,340 |
0E982 |
Technology for items under 0A982/0A985 |
0 |
$ 0 |
0E984 |
Technology for items under 0A984 |
0 |
$ 0 |
1A984 |
Chemical agents including tear gas containing 1% or less of CS or CN |
136 |
$ 8,192,725 |
1A985 |
Fingerprinting powders, dyes and inks |
3 |
$ 172,940 |
3A980 |
Voice print identification and analysis equipment |
0 |
$ 0 |
3A981 |
Polygraphs, fingerprint analyzers, cameras and equipment |
118 |
$ 16,458,138 |
3D980 |
Software for items under 3A980 and 3A981 |
53 |
$ 2,707,083 |
3E980 |
Technology for items under 3A980 and 3A981 |
0 |
$ 0 |
4A003* |
Digital computers for computerized fingerprint equipment only |
0 |
$ 0 |
4A980 |
Computers for fingerprint equipment | 15 |
$ 8,958,879 |
4D001* |
Software for items under 4A003 only |
0 |
$ 0 |
4D980 |
Software for items under 4A980 |
16 |
$ 269,950 |
4E001* |
Technology for items under 4A003 and 4D001 only |
0 |
$ 0 |
4E980 |
Technology for items under 4A980 |
1 |
$ 1 |
6A002c* |
Police-model infrared viewers only |
0 |
$ 0 |
6E001* |
Technology for development of items under 6A002c only |
0 |
$ 0 |
6E002* |
Technology for production of items under 6A002c only |
0 |
$ 0 |
9A980 |
Mobile crime science laboratories |
2 |
$ 492,840 |
TOTAL |
|
1,826 |
$121,343,094 |
NOTES: (1) Table 1 lists all crime control ECCNs including those for which no license applications were submitted, to give the reader the broadest perspective of the items covered. (2) Those ECCNs marked with an asterisk (*) cover more than just crime control items, but the corresponding statistics represent only the crime control items within the ECCN. (3) ECCNs 0A978, 0A979, 1A985 and 0E982 were created under a rule published on September 13, 2000, in the Federal Register. The statistics therein consequently cover only the period from that date to September 30, the end of the fiscal year.
In FY 2000, the United States denied 32 applications for crime control items worth $2,584,908. The largest number of denials (11 of 32) involved shotguns, with applications for discharge type arms being the second most often denied. Table 2 lists only those crime control ECCNs for which applications were denied.
ECCN |
Description |
Applications Denied |
$ Value |
|---|---|---|---|
0A982 |
Thumbcuffs, leg irons, shackles |
3 |
$ 4,510 |
0A984 |
Shotguns and shotgun shells |
11 |
$568,574 |
0A985 |
Discharge type arms (e.g., stun guns, shock batons) |
5 |
$435,860 |
0A987 |
Optical sighting devices for firearms |
4 |
$105,975 |
1A984 |
Chemical agents, incl. tear gas |
4 |
$ 16,576 |
3A981 |
Fingerprint analyzers, polygraphs |
1 |
$28,095 |
4A980 |
Computers for fingerprint equipment |
3 |
$1,427,318 |
4D980 |
Software for computers controlled under 4A980 |
1 |
$0 |
TOTAL |
... |
32 |
$2,584,908 |
In FY 2000, the United States approved 1,210 export license applications worth $69,669,241 for items affected by the new foreign policy controls on firearms and ammunition instituted in 1999. This compares to 1,532 approvals valued at $87,782,525 in FY 1999. These totals represent an increase from FY 1998, when the United States approved 986 applications, valued at $54,429,813, for these items. Much of the increase consists of license application approvals for exports of firearms and ammunition to Canada, which did not require a validated license before the publication of the firearms regulation on April 13, 1999. This OAS control is not limited to crime control items; however, it is limited to the following three ECCNs covering arms and accessories: OA984, OA986, and OA987. The table below lists the number and value of export licenses that the United States issued for firearms, ammunition, sights and related items affected by these foreign policy controls in FY 2000.
ECCN |
Items Controlled |
Applications Approved |
$ Value |
|---|---|---|---|
0A984 |
Shotguns & buckshot shotgun shells |
737 |
$28,723,987 |
0A986 |
Other shotgun shells |
252 |
$31,856,895 |
0A987 |
Optical sighting devices for firearms |
221 |
$ 9,088,359 |
TOTAL |
|
1,210 |
$69,669,241 |
5. Enforcement of Control. Crime control items and implements of torture are easily recognizable and do not present significant enforcement problems related to detecting violations or verifying use. However, enforcement cooperation with other countries generally is difficult in cases involving unilaterally-controlled items and often depends on the type and quantity of goods in question. In addition, enforcement of controls on reexports is challenging and rests in large part on the willingness of the recipient to abide by the terms of the export license. The U.S. government conducts post-shipment verifications to verify that selected exports are received by the listed end users and to confirm that controlled items are being used consistently with the license conditions.
On November 6, 2000, the Department of Commerce, via the Federal Register and via BXA's web page, solicited comments from industry on the effectiveness of foreign policy-based export controls. No letters were received during this comment period related specifically to the controls in this chapter. A more detailed review of the comments is available in Appendix I.
Throughout the year, the Department of Commerce has met or otherwise consulted with exporters of crime control items and with human rights groups concerned about their misuse in various parts of the world. As discussed above, the United States Government made certain changes in the licensing policy and covered commodities in response to the concerns of human rights groups.
Amnesty International sent a letter to the Department of Commerce in support of the regulation published September 13, 2000, that revises several crime control entries on the basis of human rights concerns. In its letter, Amnesty suggested some additional revisions to this control area that they believe would increase transparency of the control and further elevate human rights as a licensing consideration.
Most other supplier countries have not placed similar export controls on crime control and detection equipment. The United Kingdom and Canada maintain controls on certain crime control commodities that are similar to U.S. controls.
Section 6(n) of the Act requires export controls on crime control and detection equipment. Alternative means do not satisfy this statutory requirement. The United States does, however, use diplomatic demarches, sanctions, and other means to convey its concerns about the human rights situation in various countries.
The foreign availability provision does not apply to Section 6(n) of the Act.(3) Congress has recognized the usefulness of these controls in supporting United States policy on human rights issues, foreign availability notwithstanding.
End Notes
1. Certain goods, technology and software described in this report, whether or not subject to foreign policy controls, may also require a license for export to certain destinations for national security purposes in accordance with Section 5 of the Act.
2. Citations following each of the foreign policy control programs refer to those sections of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, that describe the control program.
3. Provisions pertaining to foreign availability do not apply to export controls in effect before July 12, 1985, under Sections 6(i) (International Obligations), 6(j) (Countries Supporting International Terrorism), and 6(n) (Crime Control Instruments). See the Export Administration Amendments Act of 1985, Public Law No. 99-64, Section 108(g)(2), 99 Stat. 120, 134-35. Moreover, Sections 6(i), 6(j), and 6(n) require that controls be implemented under certain conditions without consideration of foreign availability.