Boundless opportunities exist for U.S. businesses when they export their products and services to foreign markets. However, the vast export opportunities must be tempered by your duty to diligently and effectively comply with U.S. export control laws under the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Export Administration Regulations (EAR), the U.S. State Department’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), and the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions laws.

A foundation of a strong export compliance program is export compliance training. Training is important because it:

  • Ensures that all employees understand the export regulations and reinforces internal policies and procedures. Many businesses don’t realize the export control concerns many of their employees, not just the export department. This is because the scope of the term “export” is broad in the EAR and the ITAR. For example, “deemed exports” refer to the release of controlled technology to a foreign person, including within the territory of the United States. Therefore, employees that have little to do with a business’ export activities (e.g. accountants, information technology, customer service) can inadvertently cause your business to violate U.S. export control laws (e.g. by sharing information to non-U.S. persons, by failing to secure data on a cloud server, etc.).
  • Demonstrates to federal government agencies that your business is proactive about export compliance. Training is a great way to demonstrate to BIS and DDTC that you are on top of your export compliance obligations. The federal agencies like to see regular export compliance training.
  • Is a terrific mitigating factor for your business when subject to costly penalties and even criminal liability. Many U.S. businesses have paid hefty civil penalties for violating U.S. export control laws. L3Harris Technologies, for example, was fined $13 million for illicitly exporting defense technology and software. For more examples of costly civil and criminal penalties, check out BIS’ latest Don’t Let This Happen to You! report.

Training that Meets Your Organization’s Needs

Fortunately, export compliance training can be highly tailored to meet your company’s needs. Given that many different departments from sales to accounting to human resources can be implicated in export compliance matters (not just the trade department), it’s important that everyone who could violate U.S. export control laws receive a basic level of export compliance training. However, it’s also important that those individuals most involved in export matters receive in-depth training as they are most liable to violate U.S. export control laws. Below, we describe some of the trainings that Diaz Trade Law provides:

  • General Awareness Training (Exporting 101): We offer an overview training for your entire organization which introduces all departments in your company to the fundamentals of export compliance. General Awareness Training ensures that your entire organization is on the same page about the importance of export compliance, and understands that export compliance involves more than just the work done by export personnel. General Awareness Training also helps ensure that everyone knows that export violations can occur in every department, and builds consciousness about avoiding export violations altogether, or identifying export violations when they do occur and proactively resolving issues in a transparent and accountable manner.
  • Orientation Training: Our orientation training works with your developed export control program to assist new employees in understanding the intricacies of their new role and how it is implicated by export control laws. The orientation training is highly tailored to the new employee and your company processes. The training instills in new employees an understanding of how export violations can occur in their role, establishes good practices to avoid costly export violations, and establishes a system for proactively following-up with identified violations.
  • Advanced Training for Export Personnel (Exporting 201): Diaz Trade Law offers more specialized training for export personnel in your organization who are already familiar with the fundamentals of export controls. The focused training provides in-depth training on particular issues of export controls that pertain to your organization; updates your export personnel about the latest developments in U.S. export control laws and policies; provides an opportunity to meaningfully discuss patterns of violations to ensure that these violations occur less often; and instills in the personnel an appreciation of the seriousness of U.S. export controls and the significant civil and criminal penalties associated in violating these laws.

Want more information on Export Compliance Training? Check out our blog posts and on-demand webinars:

Contact Us

All of your training events include assessments for comprehension, certificates for successful participation, and ample opportunities for Q&A. For your next export compliance training event, trust Diaz Trade Law to provide highly-effective, engaging training both in-person or online. If you have questions or are interested in scheduling a training, reach out to us at info@diaztradelaw.com or call us at 305-456-3830.