The US Consolidated Screening List explained

The Consolidated Screening List (CSL) is the US government's combined list of parties that face restrictions on exports, reexports and transfers. The International Trade Administration publishes it on trade.gov. It pulls lists from three departments: Commerce, State and the Treasury. If you ship goods abroad, send software or technology out of the US, or move goods for someone else, these are the lists to check your customers and partners against.

OFAC's lists are in the CSL too. We cover them separately in OFAC's sanctions lists explained. This guide covers the export lists that sit beside them. For how sanctions lists work in general, start with what a sanctions list is.

What is in the Consolidated Screening List?

trade.gov says the CSL tools "are a consolidation of multiple export screening lists of the Departments of Commerce, State, and the Treasury." Each entry in the download has a source column naming the list it came from.

We downloaded the CSV on 16 October 2026. It held 26,154 entries:

The OFAC rows make up about three quarters of the file. The rest are the export lists this guide is about.

The four Commerce lists

BIS, the Bureau of Industry and Security, runs US export controls under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Its four lists all hang off the same idea: an "item subject to the EAR". Under 15 CFR 734.3 that covers all items in the United States and all US-origin items wherever they are, plus some foreign-made items with US content.

An "export" is wider than a box on a ship. Under 15 CFR 734.13 it includes any shipment or transmission out of the US. It also includes releasing technology or source code to a foreign person inside the US, which the EAR calls a "deemed export".

Entity List

The Entity List is Supplement No. 4 to 15 CFR Part 744. Under section 744.11, BIS can add an entity when there is "reasonable cause to believe, based on specific and articulable facts" that it is involved, or poses a significant risk of being involved, in activities contrary to US national security or foreign policy interests. The End-User Review Committee makes those decisions.

What it restricts: a license is required, "to the extent specified on the Entity List", to export, reexport or transfer in-country any item subject to the EAR when a listed entity is a party to the transaction. License exceptions can't be used unless the entry allows them. Each entry states its own license requirement and license review policy.

In practice most entries reach everything. Of the 3,419 Entity List rows in our download, 3,187 set the license requirement at "all items subject to the EAR". Many give the review policy as "Presumption of denial". China and Russia appear most often in the addresses, followed by Hong Kong, the UAE and Pakistan.

Denied Persons List

The Denied Persons List names people and companies that have lost their export privileges through a denial order under EAR parts 764 and 766. trade.gov puts the rule in one sentence: "Any dealings with a party on this list that would violate the terms of its denial order are prohibited."

Under 15 CFR 764.3, a denial order can deny exports, reexports and in-country transfers by or to the person of any item subject to the EAR. It can also "restrict dealings in which that person may benefit" from those transactions. General Prohibition Four in 15 CFR 736.2 makes it your job to check that none of your transactions breach the order. No license exception covers it.

The orders are published in the Federal Register. Section 736.2 says those orders "are the legally controlling documents." Read the dates too. Many Denied Persons rows in the CSV carry an end date that has already passed.

Unverified List

The Unverified List is Supplement No. 6 to Part 744. It names foreign parties whose bona fides BIS could not verify, because an end-use check such as a pre-license check or post-shipment verification could not be completed "for reasons outside of the U.S. Government's control." trade.gov calls a listed party "a 'Red Flag' that should be resolved before proceeding with the transaction."

What it restricts, under section 744.15:

• No license exceptions may be used when a party to the transaction is on the list.
• For a shipment that needs no license, you must get a signed "UVL statement" from the listed party before you proceed.
• The statement commits the party to use the items lawfully and to cooperate with end-use checks. You keep it under EAR part 762, which sets a five-year retention period.

Military End-User List

The Military End-User (MEU) List is Supplement No. 7 to Part 744. Under section 744.21, a license is required to export, reexport or transfer the items listed in Supplement No. 2 to Part 744 when you know they are meant for a military end use in Burma, Cambodia, China, Nicaragua or Venezuela, or for a military end user from one of those countries. The MEU List names military end users that BIS has identified. Applications for those items are reviewed with a presumption of denial.

trade.gov says no license exceptions are available for MEU List entities, except parts of License Exception GOV. BIS also warns that "The MEU List is not an exhaustive list." A company can be a military end user without being named. Russian and Belarusian military end users are listed on the Entity List instead, with a footnote 3 designation.

The State Department lists

Two State Department lists are in the CSL.

AECA Debarred List. The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls keeps this list under the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Under 22 CFR 127.7, a debarred person is prohibited from "participating directly or indirectly" in any activity the ITAR controls. Statutory debarment follows a criminal conviction for breaking the AECA. Administrative debarment follows an enforcement proceeding and generally lasts three years. Reinstatement is not automatic in either case. This list matters if you deal in defense articles, defense services or ITAR technical data.

Nonproliferation Sanctions. The Bureau of Arms Control and Nonproliferation lists parties sanctioned under several US laws for proliferation activities. The State Department says "the Federal Register is the only official and complete listing of nonproliferation sanctions determinations." trade.gov adds that from 1 October 2026 this list no longer includes people designated under certain State-led executive order programs. Those people are on OFAC's SDN list instead.

How do these lists differ from OFAC's sanctions lists?

OFAC's lists are about money and property. The export lists are mostly about items moving.

The two sets overlap. trade.gov says the EAR requires a license for exports or reexports to any SDN entry carrying the tags SDGT, SDT, FTO, IRAQ2, NPWMD or NS-PLC. So an SDN hit can be an export problem as well as a payment problem. For what an SDN entry means on its own, see what the OFAC SDN list is.

Who needs to check the Consolidated Screening List?

The export lists apply to transactions, not to a type of business. Under 15 CFR 758.3, "All parties that participate in transactions subject to the EAR must comply with the EAR." In practice that includes:

• Exporters. The US principal party in interest is usually the exporter. It must work out whether a license is needed and get it.
• Freight forwarders. Section 758.3 says acting through a forwarding agent "does not in and of itself relieve anyone of responsibility." BIS's red flag list also includes "A freight forwarding firm is listed as the product's final destination."
• Businesses whose software or technology leaves the US. A download, an email attachment or a source code release to a foreign person can be an export under 734.13.
• Companies outside the US. US-origin items stay subject to the EAR wherever they are. Reselling them can be a reexport.

A business that only buys from US suppliers and sells inside the US will rarely trigger these lists. A business with overseas customers in its QuickBooks file should check them.

Where to search or download the CSL

trade.gov publishes the CSL in three ways.

1. The CSL Search Engine. A free web search by name, country or source agency. It has "Fuzzy Name Search", which returns a score for exact and near matches. trade.gov says this is "particularly helpful" for names translated into English from non-Latin alphabets.
2. Downloadable files. The full list as CSV, TSV (ASCII encoded) and JSON. The files downloaded without an account when we checked. Each row has a source_information_url column that links to the issuing agency's page for that list.
3. The CSL API. trade.gov says the API gives "open, machine-readable" access and supports fuzzy name search too. Calls need a subscription key from the developer portal. Our test call without a key was refused.

The CSV opens in any spreadsheet program. Filter the source column to see one list at a time.

How often does the CSL change?

trade.gov says: "All the tools are updated automatically every day at 5:00 AM EST/EDT." It also says each agency is responsible for providing its updated files. A change an agency publishes during the day reaches the CSL at the next daily refresh, at the earliest.

The legal changes themselves come through the Federal Register. BIS adds and removes Entity List entries by rule, and denial orders are published there when issued. You can sign up for CSL email updates on the trade.gov page.

Screening a customer once, when you set them up, misses later additions. Check again before each export and after list updates.

What to do on a possible match

trade.gov's instruction is short: if a party "appears to match a party potentially involved in your export transaction, additional due diligence should be conducted before proceeding." Here is how that works in order.

1. Hold the shipment. Don't ship, release technology or confirm the order until you know which list the hit is on.
2. Compare the details. Check the address, country and any alternate names against the entry. A name match alone may be a different company.
3. Read the official entry. Follow the source_information_url and look up the Federal Register citation. trade.gov says that before taking further action "the user must check the official publication of restricted parties in the Federal Register."
4. Work out what the list requires. Entity List and MEU List: check whether your item needs a license and what the review policy says. Unverified List: get the UVL statement first. Denied Persons List or debarment: assume the deal can't go ahead without authorization. OFAC entries follow OFAC's rules, covered in our OFAC guide.
5. Resolve it or ask. BIS's Know Your Customer guidance says that if concerns remain, you should "either refrain from the transaction or submit all the relevant information to BIS" in a license application. The guidance lists the Office of Exporter Services at (202) 482-4532 and the Office of Export Enforcement at 1-800-424-2980.
6. Keep a record. Save what you searched, when, which file or search you used, and what you decided. EAR records are kept for five years.

For a step-by-step vendor check inside QuickBooks, see how to screen QuickBooks vendors against the OFAC list. The same steps work with the CSL file.

Sanctions Verified, opening to QuickBooks Online and Xero users, will screen your contacts against the CSL's Commerce and State lists, downloaded daily, alongside OFAC lists taken directly from OFAC and the UK, EU, UN, Australian and New Zealand lists. It keeps a dated record of each check. Until it launches, the trade.gov search and CSV do the job.

This guide is general information, not legal advice.