AP News, January 23rd, 2008
President Bush on Tuesday approved changes aimed at modernizing the country's controls on the export of sensitive products to foreign nations. U.S. manufacturers said the changes should boost the ability of American companies to make overseas sales.
In a brief statement, the White House said the package of directives would promote a "more efficient and transparent export licensing process."
Manufacturers estimated the proposals would greatly reduce the number of products for which businesses must obtain export control licenses.
John Engler, the head of the National Association of Manufacturers and the former governor of Michigan, said in an interview with The Associated Press that approval of the changes has been a top priority for manufacturers who believe it will streamline what is now a cumbersome review process.
"This decision will keep sensitive technologies out of the hands of those seeking to harm us without hampering the ability of high-tech industries to expand exports," Engler said.
Industries expected to benefit the most include companies making high-tech products such as computers, semiconductors, machines tools and aerospace products.
The licensing process will continue to be handled by the State Department for the sale of military equipment overseas and the Commerce Department, which is charged with providing export control licenses for so-called dual use technology which can have applications in both the civilian and military sectors.
Commerce processed around 35,000 applications for export licenses in 2006 while the State Department processed around 65,000 such licenses. Engler said manufacturers hope that these totals will be greatly reduced under the new directives.
"U.S. companies had been losing out, even when they were competitive in price, because they faced six or nine months of waiting and uncertainty on whether their export license applications would be approved," Engler said.
He said the hope was that Bush's new directive would eliminate the need for thousands of export decisions that the government is making now by removing controls on lower-technology products that are readily available on the global market place.
In the White House statement, the administration said the new directives would make sure that the country would still be able to meet the "unprecedented security challenges, including terrorist threats from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and advanced conventional weapons to unstable regions of the world."
