OMB Approves BIS Final Rule for 2021 Wassenaar Agreement

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a final rule (likely an interim final rule) by the DOC’s Bureau of Industry and Security for Implementation of 2021 Wassenaar Arrangement Decisions. An earlier IFR covered four ‘emerging and foundational’ technologies that were addressed in the 2021 Wassenaar agreement, this rulemaking covers the remainder. As such it may include additional cybersecurity controls.

These Wassenaar rules are implementations of international agreements reached under the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies. BIS publishes these rules as interim final rules as they are technically exempt for the ‘publish and comment’ requirements faced by most rulemakings. The rules typically have a delayed effective date to allow for public comments and, if enough objections are raised, BIS may further delay the effective dates to make appropriate changes to the rule.

The IFR will likely be published next week in the Federal Register.