U.S. Department of Commerce issues guidance regarding carbon fiber export

Kevin Wolf, U.S. assisant secretary of Commerce for Export Administration on Oct. 25 issued "Guidance for Preparing Commodity Classification (“CCATS”) Requests for Information Pertaining to the Development or Production of Carbon Fiber Organic Matrix Composite Items."

The guidance notes that the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) "hopes to begin building a public collection of carbon fiber organic matrix composite-related classification determinations that will be the foundation for the development of better and common understandings between and within industry and government regarding the proper classifications of a wide variety of such technologies. For such a collection to be useful, however, the requests should address all the relevant definitional and control variables in the EAR for such composite-related technologies."

The document then goes on to provide recommendations for issues to consider and address when drafting classification requests for carbon fiber organic matrix technologies — especially requests seeking determination under Export Administration Regulatons (EAR).