The best job at the Bureau of Industry and Security is, without question, working at the Office of Antiboycott Compliance (“OAC”) because all their cases are pretty much the exact same thing, leaving plenty of time to finish the daily crossword puzzle and read the sports pages. If you don’t believe me that they are all the same, just look at the latest enforcement action from OAC against McWane International, an Alabama company that manufacturers water pipes. McWane agreed to a $7,000 fine for providing a certificate that a ship was “allowed by Arab authorities to call at Arabian ports” and failing to report documentary requirements in a letter of credit for a certificate from the “owner, carrier or captain of the vessel or their agent” that the ship could call in Arab ports.

Regular readers of this blog, which obviously did not include anyone at McWane, will immediately see the problems with these certifications. Under BIS rules such certifications can only be made by the “owner, charterer, or master” of the ship. It can’t be made by McWane (which was none of the above) or by an “agent” of the “owner, charterer, or master.” We’ve talked about this identical issue at length here and here.

Fortunately the fine is only $7,000, well below an amount that might lead anyone to challenge the dubious statutory authority of the Office of Antiboycott Compliance to even exist. Disagreements over the antiboycott provisions in the Export Administration Act were one of the reasons that the act lapsed. Whether in that context the existence of the Arab boycott is a national emergency authorizing the President to extend the antiboycott provisions under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (“IEEPA”) is highly questionable.

Permalink