# Export Compliance Guide

> Source: https://bryter.com/use-cases/export-compliance-guide/

The Export Compliance Guide allows companies to ensure that their exports of goods comply with all restrictions posed by export control regimes.

#### Background

Companies engaged in the manufacturing and export of certain goods have complex internal guidelines in place to ensure that employees comply with national and international export regulations and export controls. These pieces of legislation help protect national security and international peace, as well as the interests of the countries involved, while ensuring that the goods exported are not misused, ultimately preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. 

#### What is subject to export controls?

[Export controls](https://www.iup.edu/research/resources/policies/what-is-export-control-/) regulate the export of technologies, commodities and software that can be misused to threaten national security and trade of the exporting country, and most often include military items. However, the [scope of export controls](https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=f1fb61fa-5bde-4b5e-b2e1-26c6b61290b0) can also include waste, endangered species, pesticides, biocides, chemicals or certain food. And this broad scope makes it difficult for companies to standardize how they assess and continuously monitor the items subject to export controls, which in turn makes it difficult to stay compliant and avoid regulatory fines. 

#### **What are export controls fines?** 

While regulations differ across countries, most are consistent in severity with which they fine the transgression of applicable export controls. For instance, under the US Export Control Reform Act, [criminal penalties for export controls non-compliance ](https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/enforcement/oee/penalties#:~:text=Under%20the%20Export%20Control%20Reform,fines%20per%20violation%2C%20or%20both.)include up to 20 years of imprisonment and up to $1 million in fines per violation. A similar regime exists in the UK, where, in the period March-September 2020 alone, the Department for International Trade has fined cases of non-compliance in the amount of over 700,000 for export control violations. 

#### **How export control guidelines affect business operations** 

To comply with the international and national regulations, and account for industry- and practice-specific activities, companies develop their own guidelines to manage export compliance. 

However, these internal guidelines are often highly specific and difficult to understand by business users, which leads to the legal team receiving a high volume of similar enquiries. As business users feel uncomfortable applying specific guidelines themselves, legal teams are overwhelmed by a high number of manual assessments that require their attention. This turns legal teams into a bottleneck, taking up a significant portion of their time, as they try to work through the numerous, repetitive, yet sometimes slightly different requests. With BRYTER, companies can build a digital Export Compliance Guide which ensures that all relevant checks and compliance efforts are correctly conducted before exporting goods that are subject to export control regulations.  

The application guides the user through various steps required to ensure that all the necessary checks, licenses and notifications are in place to comply with export control regulations. The user feeds all the necessary inputs through an interactive questionnaire, which are then screened against the regulations.  

Based on the result of the screening, our [**business reporting software**](https://bryter.com/applications/business-reporting/) offers instructions and suggestions to ensure proper compliance is achieved or, if needed, indicate that further input from the legal department is necessary. This way, the company turns their export control processes digital, reducing chances of error in a highly sensitive field of work and ensuring full compliance, regardless of goods exported.