DFARS (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement) Licensing? Bulgaria

V

vharizanov

Hi everyone,
I'm new in this forum. I have registered and I hope someone will be able to help me.
I'm working in a company in Bulgaria for manufacturing of products from copper, zinc and their alloys (brass).
Our customer has requested a DFARS (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement) license from us.
I'm looking for some simple information about DFARS Licensing - what are the requirements, the procedure, etc.
As I wrote, the company is in Bulgaria. I read that the supplier must be from a qualifying country - is that correct? And if yes - is that a problem, because Bulgaria is not listed as quialifying country under DFARS?
Thanks in advance!
 

Stijloor

Leader
Super Moderator
Hi everyone,
I'm new in this forum. I have registered and I hope someone will be able to help me.
I'm working in a company in Bulgaria for manufacturing of products from copper, zinc and their alloys (brass).
Our customer has requested a DFARS (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement) license from us.
I'm looking for some simple information about DFARS Licensing - what are the requirements, the procedure, etc.
As I wrote, the company is in Bulgaria. I read that the supplier must be from a qualifying country - is that correct? And if yes - is that a problem, because Bulgaria is not listed as quialifying country under DFARS?
Thanks in advance!

Can someone help our new Member?

Thank you!

Stijloor.
 
2

20110525R

Yes, you have a problem. Not sure what registration you are referring to, what clause of DFARS are you looking at? You can go to the Hill AFB Far site : http://farsite.hill.af.mil/
For all the DFARS, FAR's etc and look up your clause. If it is materials from a foreign country, the country has to be listed as acceptable as a supplier to the US. Certain countries are not allowed to be used as suppliers for Defense Contracts, that being, you cannot use their products in manufacture of products on the contract. Check the clauses and post the clause you are referring to.
 
V

vharizanov

First of all - Thanks for the prompt responses!
I'm referring to the following clause:

"DFARS 252.225-7014, Preference for Domestic Specialty Metals, Alt 1 has the following basic requirements:
  • Specialty metals must be melted in the United States or a qualifying country, or they can be melted anywhere but must be "incorporated in an article manufactured in a qualifying country". The clause allows a qualifying country to manufacture parts from metal that was melted anywhere, provided it meets specifications, but a United States company can only use metal that was melted in the United States or a qualifying country.
  • As of the date of this article, the qualifying countries are Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland."
The metals (alloys) are melted in the our company and the articles are manufactured from this melted metal, on the same place (in the company).
If I understand correctly, we can not deliver any articles for military purposes to any customer in USA. Is that true?
And if yes - What if the customer declared that this articles will not be used for military purposes?
Thanks again!
 

Al Rosen

Leader
Super Moderator
First of all - Thanks for the prompt responses!
I'm referring to the following clause:

"DFARS 252.225-7014, Preference for Domestic Specialty Metals, Alt 1 has the following basic requirements:
  • Specialty metals must be melted in the United States or a qualifying country, or they can be melted anywhere but must be "incorporated in an article manufactured in a qualifying country". The clause allows a qualifying country to manufacture parts from metal that was melted anywhere, provided it meets specifications, but a United States company can only use metal that was melted in the United States or a qualifying country.
  • As of the date of this article, the qualifying countries are Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland."
The metals (alloys) are melted in the our company and the articles are manufactured from this melted metal, on the same place (in the company).
If I understand correctly, we can not deliver any articles for military purposes to any customer in USA. Is that true?
And if yes - What if the customer declared that this articles will not be used for military purposes?
Thanks again!
I believe that you can deliver, but the customer can't incorporate the material in a defense related article. Your customer can buy material from anywhere, but he must use material only from qualified countries in US DOD products. If your customer is doing non DOD and DOD work, it may be easier for him to buy only from US or qualified countries.

To answer your original question, it's a problem for your customer since Bulgaria is not a qualified country. Their are waivers for special reasons and exceptions for Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) items.
 
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2

20110525R

First of all - Thanks for the prompt responses!
I'm referring to the following clause:

"DFARS 252.225-7014, Preference for Domestic Specialty Metals, Alt 1 has the following basic requirements:
  • Specialty metals must be melted in the United States or a qualifying country, or they can be melted anywhere but must be "incorporated in an article manufactured in a qualifying country". The clause allows a qualifying country to manufacture parts from metal that was melted anywhere, provided it meets specifications, but a United States company can only use metal that was melted in the United States or a qualifying country.
  • As of the date of this article, the qualifying countries are Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland."
The metals (alloys) are melted in the our company and the articles are manufactured from this melted metal, on the same place (in the company).
If I understand correctly, we can not deliver any articles for military purposes to any customer in USA. Is that true?
And if yes - What if the customer declared that this articles will not be used for military purposes?
Thanks again!
Having dealt with the Berry Amendment in the past, I will start by saying, getting a waiver is a very time consuming and expensive process, you also may never receive the waiver due to the lengthy processes and politics involved and the high level of approval required.
Your first step in trying to resolve this will be to contact your Administrative Contracting Officer (ACO) or the Primary Contracting Officer (PCO). Depending on your contract (or Sub-Contract) it may be easier and faster to purchase the materials from a US source or an already approved source country on the list.
There are several things that would play into this for your company, but without reveiwing the details of your contract it's just a guess. First things first, contact the appropriate level at the DoD Program Office with your issue. This is NOT a simple fix, been there, done that.....
 
V

vharizanov

Hi again,
I was thinking that maybe we cannot deliver this product to the customer. But I read the clause again and I paid attention to the following:
"DFARS 252.225-7014, Preference for Domestic Specialty Metals, Alt 1 has the following basic requirements:
Specialty metals must be melted in the United States or a qualifying country, or they can be melted anywhere but must be "incorporated in an article manufactured in a qualifying country". The clause allows a qualifying country to manufacture parts from metal that was melted anywhere, provided it meets specifications, but a United States company can only use metal that was melted in the United States or a qualifying country
."
The customer asked us about copper articles, and more concretely about Copper Rods.
Please look the "specialty metals" definition which is given in clause 252.225-7009:
"12) “Specialty metal” means—
(i) Steel—
(A) With a maximum alloy content exceeding one or more of the
following limits: manganese, 1.65 percent; silicon, 0.60 percent; or copper, 0.60 percent;
or
(B) Containing more than 0.25 percent of any of the following elements:
aluminum, chromium, cobalt, molybdenum, nickel, niobium (columbium), titanium,
tungsten, or vanadium;
(ii) Metal alloys consisting of—
(A) Nickel or iron-nickel alloys that contain a total of alloying metals
other than nickel and iron in excess of 10 percent; or
(B) Cobalt alloys that contain a total of alloying metals other than
cobalt and iron in excess of 10 percent; Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement
(iii) Titanium and titanium alloys; or
(iv) Zirconium and zirconium alloys."
I'm very confused. It doesn't refers to copper or brass articles. The only one clause which refers to copper products is 252.216-7000 Economic Price Adjustment--Basic Steel, Aluminum, Brass, Bronze, or Copper Mill Products, but it refers only to the price, not requirements or restrictions.
What do you think about this?
And who must be the national authority who must be responsible about this kind of licences - the Ministery of Foreign Affairs?
And finally - what do you think about "incorporated in an article manufactured in a qualifying country" - we melt the metal, make an article from it (rods, wires, discs, sheets, etc.) and after we sell the product, the customer makes another item from our article - for example copper discs hard drawn to munitions.

Thanks a lot!
 
2

20110525R

Not too confusing really, since you are providing a Non-Specialty metal (Copper Rods) and your customer is making the product into another product, then you are not providing a Specialty Metal or Alloy. You still must meet the specifications for the Rods, but it is not considered a specialty metal or Alloy per the DFARS clause. You can read the Berry Amendment to see the process for Specialty Metals if your company provides any steel alloys containing any of the listed elements.
Here's a reference for current information from the Congressional Research Service regarding the Berry Amendment: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL31236.pdf
 
V

vharizanov

Thank you for the reply!
Could you tell me what specifications are you talking about? I had a look at the Berry Amendment, but I didn't manage to find any specification. Is this any technical specification for the article?
And according to your post again - our company doesn't provide steel alloys. This inquiry refers only to pure copper articles.
And finally - after the copper is not covered by the DFARS (it is not "specialty metal") can we only declare that our article meets the DFARS requirements and specification or we need some more special documents?
Thanks!
 
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