Definition of "Qualifying Country End Product" (DFARS Case 2010-D028)

Summary:

DCN 20111004 includes a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to revise the definition of "qualifying country end product." This final rule eliminates the component test for qualifying country end products that are commercially available off-the-shelf items.

Supplementary Information:

I.  Background

DoD published a proposed rule in the Federal Register at 76 FR 32845 on June 6, 2011, to amend the definition of qualifying country end product. One comment was received in response to the proposed rule.

II. Discussion and Analysis of Public Comment

Comment: The respondent stated that we need to define "commercially available off-the-shelf item" or reference the definition in the FAR, because there is nothing that says that the definitions in the FAR necessarily apply to the DFARS.

Response: The DFARS implements and supplements the FAR (see FAR subpart 1.3). Unless the DFARS specifically makes a statement to the contrary, everything in the FAR is the basis upon which the DFARS is built. No change to the rule is necessary on the basis of this comment.

III. Other Changes

As a technical update, the more recent definition of "qualifying country" in 225.003 is incorporated in two of the clauses changed by the final rule, rather than citing to the list of qualifying countries at 225.872-1. This has no practical impact, because the two lists contain the same countries. The definition was added to DFARS 225.003 to reduce confusion, because the list at DFARS 225.872-1 is split into two paragraphs, (a) and (b), which sometimes leads to misinterpretation of the status of countries that are listed in paragraph (b).

Dates:

The Effective Date for this final rule is 4 October 2011.

Click here to read the entire Federal Register notice for this rule.