The White House today announced that it was sending to Congress the “Export Enforcement Act of 2007.” The proposed legislation would substantially increase penalties for violations of the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”):
The proposed Export Enforcement Act of 2007 . . . would increase maximum corporate penalties from $50,000 under the executive orders to either $5 million or ten times the value of the exported good, whichever is more.
Yikes! Penalties at that level will certainly make exporters think twice about making a voluntary disclosure to BIS. Even if the exporter gets the 50 percent mitigation for the voluntary disclosure, the new penalties will result in significant payments for EAR violations.
As of the time of this post the only news report of the Bush administration’s proposal was the Reuters India story linked above. Nor was a copy of the legislation available for review on the White House website or on Thomas. When it becomes available, we’ll post a more detailed analysis.
Not only will it stop voluntary disclosures, it will stop exports. The Boys in Beijing must be proud of their Boy George.
Secretary Gutierrez’z press release is at the following link:
http://www.commerce.gov/opa/press/Secretary_Gutierrez/2007_Releases/April/24_Gutierrez_Export_Enforcement_Control_Bill_rls.html
On this page there is also a link to the “fact sheet”.
A very interesting read.
The proposed bill is now posted on the BIS web site
[…] The White House’s early Christmas gift to BIS — the Export Enforcement Act of 2007 — was posted this afternoon on the Bureau of Industry and Security’s website. When we reported on it yesterday, only a somewhat misleading Reuter’s wire story was available. […]