U.S. Department of Commerce’s web tool helps companies comply with export laws

The U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C., has created a new web search tool to help U.S. companies search the federal government’s Consolidated Screening List (CSL). The CSL is a streamlined collection of nine different screening lists from the U.S. Departments of Commerce, State, and the Treasury that contain names of individuals and companies with which a U.S. company may not be allowed to do business because of U.S. export regulations, sanctions, or other restrictions.

The CSL also is available through the Trade Developers Portal Application Programming Interface (API) in an open, machine-readable format. Using the API, developers and designers can create new tools, websites, or mobile apps to access the list and display the results.

If a company or individual appears on the list, U.S. firms must do further research into the individual or company in accordance with the administering agency’s rules before doing business with them.

For more information about the search tool, API or CSL, visit http://developer.trade.gov/consolidated-screening-list.html.