Global Export Controls

• The suspension of the Affiliates Rule and the impact on risk and compliance
• The Affiliates IFR and expanding Entity List
• Operational impacts and resourcing needs for export compliance functions
• Communicating Affiliates IFR risk to other departments (e.g. sales, supply chain)
• How exporters have prepared to operationalize the rule – benchmarking your strategy and resource needs
• Building a playbook for cross-organizational export compliance

During this invaluable discussion, benefit from first-hand insights on how to approach high stakes decisions under pressure-and how executive leaders are revisiting risk, the future of compliance and the shifting enforcement landscape.

Through anonymous audience polling, participants will also be able to compare notes and benchmark throughout the session.

Topics will include:

• Getting a seat at the table: Making export control compliance a competitive advantage for your organization and secure the resources your team needs
• The toughest questions posed by the C-Suite – and how to respond:
• The impact of the Affiliate Rule on business plans and operations
• Managing risk across increasingly agile supply chains in a “post-multilateral” world:
  • export controls, sanctions, and countermeasures
  • tariff volatility
  • forced labor trade restrictions, ESG, and other compliance and reporting requirements
• The implications of new and unprecedented export licensing decisions and emerging public/private partnerships
• Evolving controls on advanced technologies like AI, quantum, additive manufacturing, and drug discovery
• M&A due diligence
• Talking to C-Suite about using AI for export compliance – the lengths and limits of existing tools and steps companies are taking now to implement it
• How other areas of compliance are beginning to resemble export controls (e.g. The Connected Vehicle Rule) and the implications for compliance leaders
• Cross-organizational collaboration: partnering effectively for effective compliance, due diligence and monitoring

Though the latest export control headlines have focused on the Export Administration Regulations, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations should not be overlooked. The pace and scope of rulemaking under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations has increased since 2024, and the State Department has introduced new policies and priorities that will greatly impact the U.S. Munitions List. Meanwhile, recent developments also indicate more aggressive enforcement.

This session will discuss:

• Recent policy and regulatory developments
• Recent and planned rulemakings
• How the scope of the U.S. Munitions List is expected to expand
• Ways to help shape future rules involving the ITAR and U.S. Munitions List
• The ITAR enforcement environment
• Updating your compliance program and classifications to address these developments

• Deciding when to disclose, and how recent cases could affect your organization’s decision to disclose: Do you TRULY have a violation?
• Using recent consent agreement violations to benchmark your trade compliance strategy
• Could submitting too many low value VSDs backfire?
• Recent BIS policy changes around VSDs and practical implications
• How to structure a measured approach to disclosure and prevent “hyper-compliance”
• Government expectations for VSDs and how meeting them can affect penalties
• Updating internal channels for whistleblowers and re-evaluating and upgrading anti-retaliation policies
• Participants will be invited to engage in anonymous polling to compare notes on hot-button, sensitive questions.

• The Biden-era AI Diffusion Rule is still on the books, but with no replacement rule proposed, many companies are still using it to guide their export control strategies—how are companies managing their AI export control risk and helping sustain global operations?
• Evolving BIS policy concerning AI data centers (e.g. the end of the VEU program, the Affiliates IFR) and their ICTS supply chains, and relevant global policy shifts
• AI technology “lock down” vs “flood the zone”: How the outcome of this debate will impact AI technology firms and their ability to do business globally in either case
• The unique anatomy of AI systems (architecture, training data, model weights, and code) creates classification challenges not yet included in any jurisdiction’s AI export controls—and the potential hidden risks
• Exploring the complex scenarios that can trigger U.S. re-export laws, like when AI training occurs overseas using U.S. origin training data
• Comparing and contrasting ITAR and EAR perspectives on AI, identifying where challenging convergences and useful overlaps emerge, and how lessons learned on one side can be applied to the other

• Practical insights on when and how to partner with IT, Cybersecurity, and Privacy teams to facilitate export-control data compliance and meet other sensitive data requirements
• Building secure and export control compliant platforms for cross-border collaboration on research and transactions for individuals inside and outside your company: why FEDRamp is not enough
• Ensuring that AI systems in use within your company comply with relevant export controls to mitigate risks
• Lean strategies to boost your team’s capabilities

Participants are invited to select a roundtable for “off the record” discussion on hot button issues:

• Securing BIS Licenses – The New Landscape
• The Overlap of Export Controls and Tariffs
• Recruiting Export Compliance Talent and Optimizing Your Team
• The Impact of New Immigration Policies on Deemed Export Compliance