End Users
Exporters are responsible for conducting reasonable diligence to know the identity of the final recipient or "end-user" of an international shipment, and to vet the end-user against a series of restricted party lists, including the Entity List, the Unverified List, and the Military End-user List.
The Department of Commerce provides an that provides a first layer of diligence to vet potential foreign end-users against restricted party lists. Please do not proceed with the shipment, and contact OEC if you discover a potential connection between a person or entity on these lists and your intended foreign recipient.
The end-user is not necessarily the party to whom the shipment is addressed, and exporters must be conscious that modern international logistics and shipping practices can involve intermediate parties, with items being re-exported or transfered in country outside the initial shipping transaction. The Bureau of Industry and Security has provided a series of "red flags" to ensure that exporters are making appropriate efforts to know the end-users and to avoid diversion. If there are no red flags (or any other express requirement in the EAR), the university is permitted to procede without further inquiry, or verification. If there are red flags present in the intended shipment, the exporter has a duty to inquire and resolve any uncertainty.
Although the flags are scoped for commercial suppliers, the following subset is relevant for exports in a university setting:
- The supposed end-user is reluctant to offer information about the end-use of a product.
- The product's capabilities do not fit the profile of the end-users circumstances.
- The item being shipped exceeds the technical level of the end-user to which it is being shipped.
- The end-user is unfamiliar with the product's performance characteristics but still wants the product.
- Routine installation, training or maintenance services are declined by the customer.
- Delivery dates are vague, or deliveries are planned for out-of-the-way destinations.
- A freight forwarding firm is listed as the product's final destination.
- When questioned, the end-user is evasive or unclear about where or how it will use the item.