EXPORT CONTROL ‘REFORMS’ MAY BE GRADUAL
Problems that led to imposing strict export controls on satellites were “exaggerated, off target, political, a disaster for the industry and a disaster for national security,” said William Reinsch, pres., National Foreign Trade Council, and ex- Commerce Dept. (DoC) undersecy. for export administration under President Clinton. At Stimson Center conference on U.S. export controls on space-related technologies in Washington Tues., he said Hughes-Loral flap in 1998 that led to transfer of satellite export controls to State Dept. (DoS) from Commerce didn’t help China as much as opponents argued: “China received the most help from Russia.” Reinsch said actual drop in U.S. market share may vary according to estimates, “but nobody says it hasn’t dropped significantly.”
While most panelists agreed export control regime had problems, they disagreed on chances of reforming situation. Shift in Senate leadership to Democrats from Republicans “slowed the bill [Export Administration Act (S-149)] down just a little bit,” William Greenawalt, staffer for Senate Armed Services Committee, said. However, new Senate Majority Leader Daschle (D-S.D.) supported bill and it’s “well on it’s way to passage,” said Joel Oswald, Senate Banking Subcommittee staffer. Bill by Reps. Berman (D-Cal.) and Rohrabacher (R-Cal.) (HR-1707) that would return satellite export controls to DoC is less likely to move this year, said David Fite, House International Relations Committee staffer. He said he thought HR-1707 might reach markup, but “we're talking into 2nd session, maybe next Congress.”
Concerns about Commerce’s role in protecting national security are overblown, attorney Terence Murphy said, and having satellite export controls in State “has been disastrous.” Way to get approval for export license from Commerce was to convince it of national security interests, not just business benefit: “It’s not only a legitimate consideration, it’s an all-important consideration,” for DoC, he said. Reinsch said satellite industry could demonstrate damage of transfer, which brought “a whole lot more harm than the harm that was ostensibly done” by Hughes-Loral incident.
Items on munitions and commerce lists share similar problems, Thomas Timberman, State Dept. senior policy adviser for European Affairs said. People who want major change in policy will be disappointed, he said, but he quoted President Theodore Roosevelt as saying: “All battles that are worth anything are generally uphill.” Negotiations on exemptions for U.K. “have run into problems that are really proving to be difficult to resolve, but progress is being made,” Timberman said.