Does the country chart require an export licence
check_export_licenseGiven an ECCN and a destination country, report whether the Commerce Country Chart requires an export licence, and which reasons for control trigger it. Use this when someone is about to ship or transfer a controlled item abroad and needs the licence question answered before it moves. Returns the triggering reasons with the scope text from the Control List entry, because many controls apply to only part of an entry, plus any controls that are not decided by the chart at all. A false result means the chart alone does not require a licence; it is not clearance to export, and it says nothing about the Entity List, embargoes, end-use controls, or whether the ECCN is the right one. An entry the chart does not decide returns indeterminate with its requirement text instead of a verdict, which is an unanswered question rather than a negative answer. This tool cannot classify an item into an ECCN and will not try.
Every verdict carries its own evidence and you should report it rather than the boolean alone. checked lists each chart cell that was read and what it held, so a negative answer can be verified against 15 CFR part 738 Supplement No. 1 without trusting this server; footnotes carries row conditions this tool does not apply and which can change the answer; sourceEdition says which CFR edition the tables came from, and a snapshot older than the current regulation gives a stale answer that still reads as confident.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| eccn | Yes | Export Control Classification Number, e.g. 3A001. Digit, letter A to E, three digits. | |
| country | Yes | Destination country as spelled on the Commerce Country Chart, e.g. Japan or Korea, South. |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| eccn | No | The normalised ECCN. | |
| title | No | The Control List entry heading. | |
| status | Yes | Outcome of the lookup. Only `ok` carries an answer. `embargoed` means the chart does not govern the destination. `indeterminate` means the entry has no country-chart control in this data and the chart cannot answer for it, which is not the same as no licence being required. `ambiguous_country` means the name matched more than one row and you must ask which was meant. | |
| checked | No | Every chart-determined control on the entry, each with the column read, its reason code, the scope it applies to, and whether that column is marked for this destination. This is the citation for the verdict and it is the only way to check a `licenseRequired: false`, which otherwise arrives as a bare boolean. Verify it against 15 CFR part 738 Supplement No. 1 before relying on a negative answer. | |
| country | No | The chart row that was matched. | |
| message | No | Why no verdict was returned, when status is not `ok`. | |
| footnotes | No | Footnotes on this chart row, each with its number and text. **They can change the answer and this tool does not apply them.** Footnote 6 is the Russia and Belarus sanctions and footnote 8 is Crimea. A `licenseRequired: false` on a row carrying footnotes is not a clear result until the footnote text has been read. | |
| candidates | No | Possible destinations, when the country name matched more than one row. | |
| notCovered | No | What this answer does not address. Always present on an answered lookup. | |
| triggeredBy | No | Each control whose chart column is marked for this destination, with its scope caveat. | |
| sourceEdition | Yes | The CFR edition the tables were taken from. Present on every response, including errors. Data older than the current regulation is a stale answer, not a wrong one, and the regulation is the authority. | |
| countryColumns | No | Every control column marked for this destination on the chart row, whether or not it bears on this ECCN. | |
| licenseRequired | No | Whether the country chart requires a licence. Present only when status is `ok`. False does not mean the export is permitted. | |
| controlsNotOnChart | No | Controls on this entry that the chart does not decide, with the requirement text verbatim. |