EAR
What the Export Administration Regulations control, how an item gets an ECCN or lands in EAR99, and what BIS expects you to be able to show.
The EAR are the US Commerce Department rules at 15 CFR parts 730 through 774 covering dual-use commodities, software, and technology. BIS maintains the Commerce Control List, where each entry carries an Export Control Classification Number; anything subject to the EAR but not listed is designated EAR99.
Controls the export of dual-use items on the Commerce Control List, covering goods with both commercial and military application.
US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)
Exporters and re-exporters of dual-use items on the Commerce Control List. 15 CFR Parts 730-774.
No certificate. Classification, licensing and recordkeeping obligations sit with the exporter of record.
Manufacturers and exporters of dual-use items, including electronics, materials, and equipment that fall outside the United States Munitions List.
| Requirement | Module | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| One item record the classification can hang off | Engineering | Every part exists once, with revisions, so there is a single place a classification belongs to rather than three spreadsheets that disagree about which part number is which. Running the order of review in supplement no. 4 to part 774, or requesting a commodity classification from BIS, is work your export function does. What a single item master buys you is that the determination, once made, is attached to the part number the shop actually quotes, buys, builds, and ships, instead of to a line in a document that diverges from engineering within a quarter. |
| Controlled technology reaches only the people you choose | Engineering | Drawings, process sheets, and specifications sit behind role-based permissions with tenant isolation at the data layer and single sign-on in front, so access to technology is a system setting instead of a shared folder. That matters because §734.13(a)(2) makes releasing technology or source code to a foreign person in the United States a deemed export. Once you have determined who is authorized, the role they hold is what decides which drawings open for them, and the access list is readable at any time rather than reconstructed. |
| A record of who accessed and changed what | Analytics | Transactions carry an audit trail, so a change to a part, a bill of material, or a job is attributable to a user and a time. Section 734.15(b) treats any act that releases technology through the use of access information as needing the same authorization as the export itself, which makes credential hygiene an export question. The trail is dated, attributable evidence about your own system, which is what an export audit asks you to produce. |
| Destination and customer on the order | Sales | Quotes and sales orders carry the customer, the ship-to country, and the incoterms, which is the commercial input to a licence determination under the Commerce Country Chart in supplement no. 1 to part 738. The licence determination is made in your compliance process and against the government systems built for it, and WorkCell keeps the order, the destination, the item and the determination filed against each other so the commercial file behind each decision stays intact. |
| Where foreign-origin material came from | Purchasing | Purchase orders, receipts, and the supplier catalog record who supplied what, at what price, in what currency, which is the document trail behind a content question. The de minimis analysis in §734.4 is performed by your export function, including the categories where §734.4 allows no de minimis level at all, such as 9x515 and 600 series items or encryption technology controlled by 5E002, and WorkCell supplies the purchased value, the currency and the country of origin behind every line it rests on. |
| What actually shipped, and to whom | Warehouse | Shipments record quantity, lot and serial, customer, and ship-to address against the order that drove them, so the physical record matches the paperwork. WorkCell is the system of record for the transaction, which is what an export audit reconciles the Electronic Export Information filing and the screening evidence back against. |
For each product you want the written basis for its ECCN or its EAR99 designation. Section 738.2 explains the structure: ten categories numbered 0 through 9, five product groups A through E, and a second digit that encodes the reason for control, which is how 3A001 reads as electronics, equipment, national security. Supplement no. 4 to part 774 sets the order of review. Note §734.3(d): a BIS commodity classification is not a determination that the item is subject to the EAR in the first place.
Every export needs a documented authority. The Commerce Control List combined with the Commerce Country Chart in supplement no. 1 to part 738 tells you whether a licence is required for a given item to a given destination and reason for control. Where you shipped without a licence, the file has to say which exception or determination carried it, and the general prohibitions in part 736 still apply on top of the list. The practical trap is treating no licence required as a conclusion rather than a determination. It is a determination, it depends on item, destination, end user, and end use, and it has to be redone when any of those four change rather than inherited from the last order to the same customer.
Section 734.13(b) makes any release in the United States of technology or source code to a foreign person a deemed export to that person's most recent country of citizenship or permanent residency. For a shop with foreign nationals on the floor or in engineering, that is an access list question. An assessor asks who can open controlled technology and what authorizes each of them to see it.
Shipping records, invoices, and the correspondence behind them get kept, and where you supply US content into foreign-made goods, the de minimis analysis under §734.4 belongs with them. That section also lists the cases with no de minimis level at all, including foreign produced encryption technology incorporating 5E002 content and certain 9x515 and 600 series items, so a blanket percentage assumption is the wrong answer.
Not everything is subject to the EAR. Section 734.3(b)(3) carves out information and software that is published as described in §734.7, arises from fundamental research under §734.8, is released by instruction in a catalog course, appears in an open patent application, is a non-proprietary system description, or is telemetry data. Claiming one of those is fine; claiming it without the supporting facts on file is the finding.
What is the difference between ITAR and the EAR?
Jurisdiction. ITAR covers defense articles, defense services, and technical data on the United States Munitions List, administered by the State Department. The EAR covers dual-use commodities, software, and technology on the Commerce Control List, administered by BIS at Commerce. One item sits under one of them, not both.
What does EAR99 mean?
Section 734.3(c) designates items subject to the EAR but not listed on the Commerce Control List as EAR99. It is a residual designation, not an exemption: an EAR99 item can still need a licence depending on destination, end user, and end use under the general prohibitions in part 736.
Does the EAR have a deemed export rule like ITAR?
Yes. Section 734.13(a)(2) makes releasing technology or source code, though not object code, to a foreign person in the United States an export. Paragraph (b) deems it an export to that person's most recent country of citizenship or permanent residency. Your own engineering office can trigger it.
Can any system make us EAR compliant?
No. Classification, licence determinations, party screening, and recordkeeping are obligations on your company, and no vendor can discharge them. What WorkCell contributes is the recordkeeping half: one item record the classification attaches to, role-based access over controlled technology, an attributable audit trail, and the destination, customer and shipment held against the order that drove them.
How do we work out the ECCN for a part?
Follow the order of review in supplement no. 4 to part 774 against the Commerce Control List in supplement no. 1, then check the Commerce Country Chart for your destination. If it is genuinely unclear, request a commodity classification from BIS under §748.3 rather than guessing and documenting the guess.
Is a drawing we email to an overseas customer an export?
Usually yes, if the drawing is technology subject to the EAR. Transmission out of the United States in any manner counts under §734.13(a)(1). The exceptions are narrow: published information under §734.7, fundamental research under §734.8, and the other carve-outs listed in §734.3(b)(3).
Keep the records as the work happens.
Classification and licensing stay with your export function. WorkCell keeps the part, the customer, the destination, and the shipment on one record so the commercial file behind each decision is not scattered across inboxes.