Monday 21 December 2015

How You Can Develop an ITAR-Compliant Program

If you want to do an export transaction of defence goods and services, you should be ITAR compliant. The full form of ITAR is International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Some of the exporters realize that this process is unnecessary and some consider it to be very costly. But it in the true sense, when you are exporting defence foods and arms across the international borders, you have to follow the rules of ITAR. Failing to comply with regulations can make you face several problems like loss of reputation, low market demand, prohibition of export license and also paying huge administrative fines to the Government.

The penalties are huge. The civil fines are even more than $500,000 and the criminal penalties are $ 1 million per violation. Think it has happened with you? Why not take precautions before you are facing such situations. Complying with the export rules and regulations can be one of the safest decisions when you are exporting defence goods to non-US nations. The defence articles include technical data, services, items and arms that come under the USML list. The item that has the intelligence and military applicability is termed as the defence article. The technical data is the information that is required for production, repair, assembly, modification, testing, operation and design development. ITAR compliance requires the documented system and there are several areas that need to be identified.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE TOPICS THAT SHOULD BE CHECKED :

Corporate Commitment: The International Traffic in Arms Regulations can identify the corporate commitment for organizing the meeting and maintaining the ITAR rules. The compliance program can identify the individuals, who are responsible for ITAR program; the directive from company management describing the company commitment to ITAR and also identify the duties and regulations to maintain the ITAR requirements.

Internal Audit Program: Once you have developed the ITAR program, internal audit process requires the establishment for monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of the ITAR program. The audit process includes documentation of audit results, auditor training, yearly schedule of audit activities and also many more.

Record Maintenance Program: The documents define the activity; keep records of the evidences of all the activities and functions that are taking part. The record control program comprises the secured storage areas, back-ups for the electronic goods, storage of the records and retention periods as well.

All these areas are controlled with the help of export software applications in these days. The online tools help the exporters to maintain compliant with the regulations. Export classification and license determination are some of the important steps that are included to be compliant and have a legal trade.