International Trade Law News

The U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) today issued a press release announcing that Carl Zeiss Optical, Inc. (Zeiss), of Chester, Virginia, has agreed to pay a $10,000 civil penalty to settle charges that it illegally exported optical sighting devices from the U.S. to Canada in violation of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). In its charging letter, BIS alleged that, on ten occasions between June 7, 2002 and April 23, 2003, Zeiss exported riflescopes from the U.S. to Canada, without obtaining the required export licenses.

Today BIS also issued a press release announcing that Yarde Metals (Yarde) of Happauge, New York, has agreed to pay a $10,000 civil penalty to settle charges that it violated the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) in connection with the unlicensed export of an aluminum plate to an organization in India included on the Entity List. As previously detailed last month in International Trade Law News, BIS alleged that in May 2003, Yarde exported an aluminum plate from the U.S. to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC) in India without the required license. At the time of the export, VSSC, a sub-entity of the Indian Space Research Organization, was on the Entity List due to missile proliferation concerns.