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The following story is from the February 4 issue of International Trade Reporter
Current Reports:

Export Controls

Task Force Submits Options Memo
On Export Controls to President Obama

An administration task force Jan. 29 submitted a list of possible options for export control reform to President Obama, and agency principals are expected to weigh in on the recommendations in the coming weeks, industry sources told BNA.

The task force document will likely be the subject of a high-level meeting within the next several weeks, an industry source told BNA on background.

“It is not clear how or when it will be distributed to the agency principals or deputies. The document presents a variety of options for moving forward on [export control] reform. It does not propose a single path,” he said.

Another industry official told BNA that the document submitted to the president outlines options that can be accomplished immediately as well as “much larger, more fundamental reforms.”

Agency officials are expected to weigh in on what they like or do not like, she said. “They've been charged to do this relatively quickly,” she commented.

The task force is chaired by National Security Council staff, with representatives from the departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, State, and the Treasury and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The task force has examined the recommendations of the numerous studies that have already examined the U.S. export control system.

Wide Ranging Review Ongoing

The Obama administration announced a wide-ranging review of export controls in August 2009 including both the dual-use and defense trade policies and processes (26 ITR 1116, 8/20/09).

Obama made a pitch for reform of export controls consistent with U.S. national security in his Jan. 27 State of the Union address (see related report, this issue).

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told a news conference Jan. 28 after the president's speech that he believed that there could be bipartisan support for legislation to overhaul export controls.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said at a Jan. 27 press conference that senior administration officials—including Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher, and White House National Security Adviser James Jones—briefed congressional leaders on the issue at a breakfast meeting Jan. 27.

Gates Committed to Cooperation

Morrell said that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is committed to working with an interagency team and with Congress to “make meaningful and lasting changes to our export controls.” Gates believes this is imperative to keep the United States competitive in the global economy, Morrell said.

“The Defense Department has traditionally been an impediment to meaningful changes in our export controls, but Secretary Gates is committed to working with the White House, State, Commerce and the Congress to make wholesale changes to the rules and regulations governing technology exports,” he said. He noted that the initiative was being lead by the Commerce Department but is one Gates “fully supports and is willing to go to bat for.”

The Commerce Department is working with agencies such as the State and Defense departments to improve the so-called commodity jurisdiction process, which aims to sort out what agency controls which products.

According to Morrell, Gates believes that what is required is not “tinkering around the edges of what is a rather cumbersome, antiquated, outdated, bureaucratic set of rules and regulations governing the export of technology.”

Rather, Gates believes “you need to conduct a wholesale reform of export controls, really starting with a blank sheet of paper,” Morrell said.

Against this backdrop, the Export Control Practitioners Group—a diverse group of associations, businesses, practitioners ,and compliance experts—Jan. 19 released recommendations for reform of the U.S. export control system. Several members of the group, such as the National Foreign Trade Council, are also a part of the Coalition for Security and Competitiveness, which released its export control reform recommendations Jan. 12 (27 ITR 36, 1/14/10).

By Rossella Brevetti

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