US moving forward with online export licensing platform

The US Department of State (DoS) is continuing to develop and improve its online Defence Export Control and Compliance System (DECCS) export licensing platform, following on from its successful rollout online of registration and licensing on 18 February and the challenges of Covid-19.

“As a result of Covid-19 and social distancing requirements, the entire government was thrust into telework, something that honestly few had done in the directorate [of Defence Trade Controls, DDTC]. Eighty percent of the staff now have the tool they need to do their job remotely, and with 100% productivity,” Chief Information Officer of DDTC Karen Wrege told Janes.

“Because of this thrust-into-telework scenario, the people in industry and internal users adapted to the system very quickly. They were able to work from home, be safe, and they started to see the potential of the DECCS system to make their life easier, to have a better work-life balance, and do a better job of our mission to advance national security and foreign policy objectives,” Wrege added.

The US Department of State’s new online export licensing portal began accepting export licence requests in February. (US Department of State)

To date, almost 19,000 licences have been issued through the DECCS platform, with 16,701 organisations registered to use the system.

Industry users have been providing feedback for the next steps of development of the platform, which are set to include machine-to-machine communication through the creation of an application programming interface to allow for batch uploads of licences and other submissions.