*EPF306 02/07/01
Senate Committee Poised to Move Export-Control Reform Quickly
(Outlook uncertain for bill in full Senate, House) (740)
By Bruce Odessey
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The Senate Banking Committee is attempting to drive the full Senate toward quick passage of export-control legislation aimed at reforming the existing Cold War-era law.

At a February 7 hearing, Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, a Texas Republican, said he expected close to unanimous approval of the bill in his committee and support from the Bush administration.

"We are eager to move forward with it," Senator Gramm said.

Essentially the same bill was approved by the Banking Committee 20-0 in the previous session of Congress, but opponents managed by delaying tactics to block consideration of it by the full Senate.

At issue is the Export Administration Act (EAA), which regulates exports of computers, machine tools and other dual-use technology -- goods that have both military and civilian applications.

Attempts to reform the EAA failed 12 times in the 1990s over disagreements between exporters on one side and certain military and intelligence interests on the other. The EAA lapsed in August 1994; export controls were maintained under emergency law. Only late in 2000 did Congress finally pass a bill extending it retroactively and through August 20, 2001.

Senator Michael Enzi, a Wyoming Republican sponsoring the bill, indicated the committee would seek to prevent potentially hostile other Senate committees from asserting jurisdiction over the bill and thus delaying consideration of it by the full Senate again.

Supporters want quick Senate passage of the bill not only to beat the August deadline but also to thwart delaying tactics from dooming it again.

Even if the Banking Committee approves the bill quickly with broad support, Enzi said, he expects supporters will have to defend it from attacks on the Senate floor.

The outlook for the bill in the U.S. House of Representatives is uncertain. The House never considered major EAA reform in Congress' previous session.

The House committee with primary jurisdiction, International Relations, has a new chairman, Representative Henry Hyde. Hyde has persuaded the committee to abolish the subcommittee that previously handled export-control and other trade issues, giving him more authority over them.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration has yet neither issued policy on export-control issues nor nominated top-level export-control officials.

The Senate Banking Committee EAA bill would effectively eliminate U.S. export controls on technology available from foreign sources or available in mass-market quantities. It would allow the administration to anticipate changes in controls because of rapid changes in availability or in technology. It would sharply increase penalties for export-control violations.

Enzi said the bill would also bolster U.S. efforts to persuade other countries to improve their own export-control systems and to cooperate to strengthen multilateral export-control regimes, especially the much-derided Wassenaar Arrangement

"As the United States encourages other countries, such as those in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, to implement export controls, it must set the example by sending a clear, unambiguous message that it is committed to export controls," Enzi said in a prepared statement.

Lapses in EAA authority, he said, "could send the wrong signal to these countries as well as our allies that the United States is not truly committed to export controls."

Representatives of industry testified in support of the bill. One of them, Paul Freedenberg of the Association for Manufacturing Technology, urged the committee to strengthen a provision that would mandate the administration to negotiate improvements to the multilateral regimes.

"Wassenaar provides weak guidance and almost no discipline upon its members," he said. "In some ways it is worse than having no multilateral regime at all because it gives the appearance of restricting technology transfer while leaving all they key judgments up to its constituent members."

Other Wassenaar Arrangement countries do not share the U.S. assessment of risk involved in technology transfer to China, for example, said Freedenberg, who was under secretary of commerce in the Reagan administration.

"Indeed, one could say, without any equivocation, that our European allies maintain what could only be described as a favorable export licensing policy toward China," he said.

U.S. authorities frequently deny licenses for exports of advanced machine tools to China, he said, driving those orders to companies in Germany, Switzerland, France and the United Kingdom.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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