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In the past 10 years E-Commence was booming and the global E-Commerce market was growing rapidly. In 2015 the global E-Commerce market had an estimated size of $1.6 trillion. In 2014 in the US more than 520 million E-Commerce based packages were sent and the growth of the market does not slow down. The global E-Commerce market is projected to triple in size in the next five years. Big drivers of this development are countries like China, Brazil and India with its growing middle class.

In the last 5 years, the number of Importers and Exporters using automated global trade management system nearly doubled. Those who are still holding back, do so because of two main reasons:

5 individuals and their companies have been indicted as part of a conspiracy to defraud the United States that have been accused of causing thousands of radio frequency devices to be illegally exported from the U.S. to Iran.

The former Managing Director, Xun Wang, of PPG Paints Trading Company, Ltd., located in Shanghai, pleaded guilty to illegally exporting high performance coatings to a nuclear reactor facility located in Pakistan. The company is a Chinese subsidiary of the U.S. based PPG Industries.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) will be adding two new entities to the Department of Commerce (DOC), BIS Entity list for denied trade parties. Both parties are accused of buying internet filtering devices from the United States and sending the devices to Syria.

Mr. Rudolf Cheung pled guilty this week to violating the U.S. Department of State, Arms Export Control Act (AECA). Mr. Cheung, a Massachusetts resident, was found conspiring to illegally export 55 antennae with military application, from the U.S. to Hong Kong and Singapore.

The United States Department of Commerce (DOC), Bureau of Industry and Security announced that three U.S. companies have agreed to pay $35,200 USD in penalties stemming from violations of current Export Administration Regulations.

North Carolina resident & former Staff Sergeant, Joseph Debose, pled guilty on September 6th in United States District Court specifically for violating the Arms Export Control Act. According to evidence, Debose supplied numerous shipments of firearms to co-conspirators who concealed the weaponry in packages and transported them to distribution companies to be sent to China.

Export activity provides immense opportunities for growth, stability and profit. With this opportunity comes risk and it is no secret that one of the largest risks any company faces when trading is compliance. Not only does international and national law & regulation continually shift and change, but stricter supervision and cooperation amongst authorities increases the burden of responsibility for compliance staff. Even brief application or processing delays can mean reduced revenue, profit, lost market share, and strains on valuable trading relationships.

OCR was present at SMI’s 8th annual Defence Exports Trade Conference, and team members met with European export control managers who deal with ITAR and are therefore are relatively unfamiliar with the nuances to EAR regulatory requirements. With the recent Obama export control reforms, industry are now being forced to do a hurried studies of the EAR.