WASHINGTON – Today, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) released two Spanishlanguage guidance documents, Elementos de un ECP (Elements of an ECP) and Directrices de Cumplimiento Para Las Exportaciones (Export Compliance Guidelines). The English and Spanish language versions of Elements of an ECP are posted on BIS’s website here and here; the English and Spanish versions of the Export Compliance Guidelines are here and here.

The documents, both of which focus on the elements of a comprehensive export compliance program that BIS recommends, are among the resources and services that BIS makes available to the exporting public to assist with compliance with the Export Administration Regulations (15 CFR, 730 – 774) (EAR). For additional information on export compliance, please visit the Export Management and Compliance page on BIS’s website, here.

BIS is releasing these two documents as part of its commitment to the policy of advancing equity in Executive Order 13985 of January 20, 2021, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. More specifically, this effort will help to advance equity in BIS outreach programs by making compliance materials more accessible to persons who speak Spanish as their primary language. BIS chose to offer the documents in Spanish based on data from the Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau and Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) indicating that, after English, Spanish is the language most frequently spoken in the United States, and that, while a disproportionately small number of minority business enterprises are exporters, those that do export benefit more from exporting, as a percentage of receipts, when compared to nonminority-owned exporting firms. Further, MBDA’s work has indicated that minority-owned businesses that engage in exports employ more people and are more productive (as measured by receipts per employee) as compared to minority-owned businesses that do not export.

BIS’s partnership with exporters is essential to the success of its mission to “advance U.S. national security, foreign policy, and economic objectives by ensuring an effective export control and treaty compliance system and promoting continued U.S. strategic technology leadership.” With the release of these two guidance documents in Spanish, BIS hopes to grow participation and diversity in the export economy by providing resources to help encourage more minority business enterprises to export their products.

For more information, visit www.bis.doc.gov.