The United States is seeking public input on its plan to amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to grant a rule exemption to Australia and the United Kingdom, U.S. partners in the AUKUS trilateral security agreement.
According to a Federal Register notice posted on Wednesday, the planned ITAR amendment will exempt from State Department licensing the export or import of defense articles and services among authorized entities in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The department also plans to list exclusions to the new exemption, as well as expand the exemption’s scope to include inter-company, inter-organization and inter-government defense article transfers to authorized dual nationals.
The ITAR revision reflects the AUKUS “collective commitment to implement shared security standards on protecting defense technology and sensitive military know-how,” the State Department said in its Federal Register post.
The deadline for submitting comments on the proposed exemption is May 31.
The ITAR amendment plan follows a call by U.S. defense companies, lawmakers and allies in June 2023 for a revision of the regulations, which they viewed as hindering the AUKUS alliance.