Export compliance has long been the purview of – exporters. Further, the highly technical regulatory regimes governing controlled exports, both defence articles and dual-use commodities, were until relatively recently the exclusive domain of savvy multinationals with robust compliance divisions and veritable armies of specialist in-house counsel affirmatively monitoring risk exposure. Today, however, a growing number of small firms and micro start-ups in a multitude of emerging technology sectors whose wares and know-how will never cross the domestic frontier in formal export transactions will encounter export compliance risk. This changing picture owes largely to both the growth in emerging technologies subject to controls and a unique (until recently) construct of export regulation in the United State
s – the Deemed Export. In the twenty-first century, a vast and continually growing array of start-ups operating in emerging technology sectors have export compliance obligations which many, if not most, are simply unaware of. This paper offers an historical and conceptual look at the deemed export rule, its current boundaries, and its increasingly global future.
Global Trade and Customs Journal