Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

4. Department of Defense · Notable

Decrease ITAR restrictions to ease trade with the UK, Canada, and Australia

Partially done

101 4. Department of Defense

“Decrease International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to facilitate trade with such allies as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.”

What has happened

  1. Partially done

    A further across-the-board decontrol, narrower than the August 2025 one. State's interim final rule (not a final rule; effective 2026-10-19, comments due the same day) narrows U.S. Munitions List Category XX(a)(10): uncrewed, untethered underwater vessels between 3,000 and 8,000 pounds now stay on the list only if they are specially designed to operate for more than 24 hours or 70 nautical miles without human interaction and to navigate beyond following fixed waypoints, station-keeping and see-and-avoid collision avoidance. Vessels over 8,000 pounds move to a new paragraph (a)(11) and stay controlled. The Department says the removed vessels "will become subject to the EAR", though the rule amends only 22 CFR part 121 and makes no matching Commerce Control List change of its own, and that the change "reduces the regulatory requirements associated with the removed vessels." It does not change the license exemption at 22 CFR 126.9(u), which the 2025-08-27 rule created, but asks for comments on how to widen it. Items leaving the Munitions List leave it for every destination, so this reaches the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia along with everyone else. That is the reading the 2025-08-27 event already takes. The rule cites the Arms Export Control Act's periodic-review requirement and FY2024 NDAA sec. 1345, not EO 14268. Still `partial` and not `done`: the Quote asks for ITAR to be decreased to facilitate trade with three named allies, and Canada's exemption at 22 CFR 126.5 has had only a technical correction (FR 2026-19161, same day; see Research notes). Read in full at govinfo in review.

  2. Partially done

    Another across-the-board decontrol, found in review because a correction to it appeared in the 2026-09-24 scan round. State's interim final rule removes from U.S. Munitions List Category VIII(a)(8) civil aircraft that have been modified to incorporate secured aircraft survivability equipment (directed infrared countermeasures and the missile warning systems they need), and adds two entries to 22 CFR 120.54 so that certain reexports and temporary imports of that equipment while installed in such aircraft are not controlled events. The equipment itself stays on the Munitions List in Category XI. The preamble says that ITAR requirements "impose an unnecessary compliance burden on international partners" using the equipment to protect dignitaries and commercial passengers, and that the rule reduces "the regulatory burden on those who transfer, repair, or maintain such aircraft." Like the 2025-08-27 rule, it decontrols for every destination and so reaches the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia along with everyone else. It cites the Arms Export Control Act's periodic-review requirement, not EO 14268. Effective 2026-10-13; a one-line correction to amendatory instruction 2 followed on 2026-09-16 (FR 2026-18914). Read in full at govinfo.

  3. Partially done

    State finalizes, with changes, the license-free defense trade exemption among Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, saying in terms that the rule "streamlines defense trade and facilitates cooperation among our allies while reducing the regulatory burden for exporters, in support of the President's Executive Order 14268." Two of the Quote's three named allies now have an exemption from ITAR licensing; the exemption began as an August 2024 interim final rule before the window, and Canada's separate exemption was not changed. A further proposed rule of 2026-06-15 would cut ITAR Part 130 reporting, again citing EO 14268.

  4. Partially done

    State's final rule removes from the U.S. Munitions List items "that no longer warrant inclusion," clarifies entries and adds a new license exemption for certain unmanned underwater vehicle activities. ITAR control reduced across the board, which reaches the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia along with everyone else.

  5. Attempted

    EO 14268 sec. 2(c) makes it policy to "reduce rules and regulations involved in the development, execution, and monitoring of foreign defense sales," and sec. 3(c)(ii) requires State and Defense to review and update the U.S. Munitions List "to focus protections solely on our most sensitive and sophisticated technologies." A policy, not yet a rule.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Two rules did the work, both citing EO 14268 by name in their preambles: the August 2025 Munitions List revisions and the December 2025 rule finalizing the Australia–UK–US license-free exemption. Canada’s ITAR exemption at 22 CFR 126.5 predates the window and was not revisited until the 2026-09-18 technical correction recorded below.

Searched 2026-09-24; reviewed the same day. Four ITAR rules bear on this item, and two of them are events. The review read all four at govinfo.

  • Modification of U.S. Munitions List Category XX(a) (FR 2026-19211, 2026-09-18) carries the 2026-09-18 event above. The first look called it a final rule and knew it only from its abstract. It is an interim final rule, and it narrows Category XX(a)(10) rather than removing uncrewed underwater vehicles wholesale.
  • Modification of Civil Aircraft To Incorporate Aircraft Survivability Equipment (FR 2026-17660, 2026-08-28, Public Notice 13088) carries the 2026-08-28 event above. The first look saw only its one-line correction (FR 2026-18914, 2026-09-16) and left the August rule as a lead. Opened in review, it is the same kind of across-the-board decontrol as the 2025-08-27 rule.
  • Clarifying Policies of Denial, Updating the Major Non-NATO Ally List, and Minor Corrections (FR 2026-19161, 2026-09-18, Public Notice 13121; corrected by FR 2026-19404, 2026-09-23) adds Saudi Arabia and Peru to the major non-NATO ally list and updates country policies for Ethiopia and Somalia. The first look said it names none of the Quote’s three allies. That is wrong. Reading the text shows it also revises 22 CFR 126.5(b) and (d), the Canadian exemptions. It removes from 126.5(b) the requirement to obtain a Nontransfer and Use Certificate (DSP-83) for significant military equipment exported under the exemption, and it says in 126.5(d) that reexport and retransfer requests need no such certificate. The Department presents this as “Correcting Technical Errors”: 22 CFR 123.10 already said the certificate is not required under the 126.5 exemptions, and the rule “aligns the two paragraphs”. So this is a Canada-specific change in the Quote’s direction, but it clears up a contradiction and licenses no trade that was not already exempt. It is recorded here rather than as an event, and it is why the 2026-09-18 note no longer says the Canadian exemption is “untouched”. It does not cite EO 14268.
  • Neither of the two 2026 decontrol rules cites EO 14268. Both rest on the Arms Export Control Act’s periodic review of the Munitions List. They are leveled on what they do to ITAR, which is the Quote’s object, and not on which order they cite.

ITAR USML review proposed rule (found in a search and resolved on review, 2026-10-04). Nearby, no event. State’s proposed rule ITAR: Review of the U.S. Munitions List and Related Definitions and License Exemptions (FR 2026-20079, 2026-10-01, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/01/2026-20079/international-traffic-in-arms-regulations-itar-review-of-the-us-munitions-list-and-related) was read in full at federalregister.gov. It cites EO 14268 and AECA §38’s periodic review, and it would move USML items to the EAR. Its “new exemption” is a new §123.26 for the temporary export of foreign defense articles to their OEM or its authorized service provider for servicing or repair. That exemption is not country-specific. The rule names neither the United Kingdom, Canada nor Australia, and it does not touch 22 CFR 126.5 or 126.7. A general loosening of ITAR is the direction the Quote wants, but not its object, which is easing trade with the three allies. Also read and not relevant: ITAR: Syria Country Policy Revision (FR 2026-20082, 2026-10-01), which takes Syria off the 22 CFR 126.1 denial list.

This item sits in the page 101–102 foreign military sales cluster (#157, #158, #159, #160, #161, #162), whose shared instruments are EO 14268 (2025-04-09), EO 14383 (2026-02-06), the State Department’s ITAR rulemakings and FY2026 NDAA title XII subtitle B. One negative search covered the whole cluster.

Action
restrict
Object
International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)
ID
160