Department of State Registration

Did you know that universities are not required to register with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls under ITAR 122.1 exemption 2 and 4 (see below)? However, if you need to apply for a license, or even to use the Canadian exemption you are required to register as a precondition. Registration fees at the time of this writing are $2250 per year. That is pretty steep for a university to pay if they only have an occasional ITAR item to export. This is the case in my experience where we needed to use the Canadian exemption at 126.5 to transfer some technical data specifications under one of our NASA space research projects to a company in Canada to build a prototype for the university. As the registration requirement states, you only need one occurence of exporting to be considered in the business of either manufacturing or exporting defense articles to trigger registration.

§ 122.1 Registration requirements.
(a) Any person who engages in the United States in the business of either manufacturing or exporting defense articles or furnishing defense services is
required to register with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. For the purpose of this subchapter, engaging in the business of manufacturing or exporting defense articles or furnishing defense services requires only one occasion of manufacturing or exporting a defense article or furnishing a defense service. Manufacturers who do not engage in exporting must nevertheless register.

(b) Exemptions. Registration is not required for:
(1) Officers and employees of the United States Government acting in an official capacity.
(2) Persons whose pertinent business activity is confined to the production of unclassified technical data only.
(3) Persons all of whose manufacturing and export activities are licensed under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended.
(4) Persons who engage only in the fabrication of articles for experimental or scientific purpose, including research and development.
[58 FR 39298, July 22, 1993, as amended at 71 FR 20540, Apr. 21, 2006]