Title 15—Commerce and Foreign Trade--Volume 1
PART 721—INSPECTION OF RECORDS AND RECORDKEEPING
§ 721.1   Inspection of records.
Upon request by BIS or any other agency of competent jurisdiction, you must permit access to and copying of any record relating to compliance with the requirements of the CWCR. This requires that you make available the equipment and, if necessary, knowledgeable personnel for locating, reading, and reproducing any record.
§ 721.2   Recordkeeping.
(a) Requirements. Each person, facility, plant site or trading company required to submit a declaration, report, or advance notification under parts 712 through 715 of the CWCR must retain all supporting materials and documentation used by a unit, plant, facility, plant site or trading company to prepare such declaration, report, or advance notification to determine production, processing, consumption, export or import of chemicals. Each facility subject to inspection under Part 716 of the CWCR must retain all supporting materials and documentation associated with the movement into, around, and from the facility of declared chemicals and their feedstock or any product chemicals formed from such chemicals and feedstock. In the event that a declared facility is sold, the previous owner of the facility must retain all such supporting materials and documentation that were not transferred to the current owner of the facility (e.g., as part of the contract involving the sale of the facility)—otherwise, the current owner of the facility is responsible for retaining such supporting materials and documentation. Whenever the previous owner of a declared facility retains such supporting materials and documentation, the owner must inform BIS of any subsequent change in address or other contact information, so that BIS will be able to contact the previous owner of the facility, to arrange for access to such records, if BIS deems them relevant to inspection activities involving the facility (see § 716.4 of the CWCR).
(b) Five year retention period. All supporting materials and documentation required to be kept under paragraph (a) of this section must be retained for five years from the due date of the applicable declaration, report, or advance notification, or for five years from the date of submission of the applicable declaration, report or advance notification, whichever is later. Due dates for declarations, reports and advance notifications are provided in parts 712 through 715 of the CWCR.
(c) Location of records. If a facility is subject to inspection under part 716 of the CWCR, records retained under this section must be maintained at the facility or must be accessible electronically at the facility for purposes of inspection of the facility by Inspection Teams. If a facility is not subject to inspection under part 716 of the CWCR, records retained under this section may be maintained either at the facility subject to a declaration, report, or advance notification requirement, or at a remote location, but all records must be accessible to any authorized agent, official or employee of the U.S. Government under § 721.1 of the CWCR.
(d) Reproduction of original records. (1) You may maintain reproductions instead of the original records provided all of the requirements of paragraph (b) of this section are met.
(2) If you must maintain records under this part, you may use any photostatic, miniature photographic, micrographic, automated archival storage, or other process that completely, accurately, legibly and durably reproduces the original records (whether on paper, microfilm, or through electronic digital storage techniques). The process must meet all of the following requirements, which are applicable to all systems:
(i) The system must be capable of reproducing all records on paper.
(ii) The system must record and be able to reproduce all marks, information, and other characteristics of the original record, including both obverse and reverse sides (unless blank) of paper documents in legible form.
(iii) When displayed on a viewer, monitor, or reproduced on paper, the records must exhibit a high degree of legibility and readability. For purposes of this section, legible and legibility mean the quality of a letter or numeral that enable the observer to identify it positively and quickly to the exclusion of all other letters or numerals. Readable and readability mean the quality of a group of letters or numerals being recognized as complete words or numbers.
(iv) The system must preserve the initial image (including both obverse and reverse sides, unless blank, of paper documents) and record all changes, who made them and when they were made. This information must be stored in such a manner that none of it may be altered once it is initially recorded.
(v) You must establish written procedures to identify the individuals who are responsible for the operation, use and maintenance of the system.
(vi) You must keep a record of where, when, by whom, and on what equipment the records and other information were entered into the system.
(3) Requirements applicable to a system based on digital images. For systems based on the storage of digital images, the system must provide accessibility to any digital image in the system. The system must be able to locate and reproduce all records according to the same criteria that would have been used to organize the records had they been maintained in original form.
(4) Requirements applicable to a system based on photographic processes. For systems based on photographic, photostatic, or miniature photographic processes, the records must be maintained according to an index of all records in the system following the same criteria that would have been used to organize the records had they been maintained in original form.
§ 721.3   Destruction or disposal of records.
If BIS or other authorized U.S. government agency makes a formal or informal request for a certain record or records, such record or records may not be destroyed or disposed of without the written authorization of the requesting entity.