More on Debarment

The State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls has taken a solid swing at the freight forwarders discussed in the previous post. Here is a link to the notice. The upshot of this is that these forwarders will be able to work through existing authorizations. Pending requests for new authorizations will be returned without action unless they contain a transaction exception request. They can be resubmitted. New requests involving these forwarders must contain a transaction exception request or they will be returned.

It's hard to see how these requests for exceptions will be treated except to deny them, but that is not a forgone conclusion. Maybe this is a shot over the bow of the forwarding community and requests will be granted until the debarments end. Or, DDTC could play hardball, which will make life very difficult for the forwarders involved and defense companies that use them.

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