U.S. National Export Controls

A House committee has approved a bill that would create new nonproliferation requirements for U.S. nuclear trade partners. A key goal of the bill is to discourage new uranium-enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing programs.

The Senate last month provided its advice and consent to ratification of defense trade cooperation treaties with Australia and the United Kingdom, a step toward establishing license-free exports between the United States and the two countries.

The Senate’s Sept. 29 action, which was preceded by Senate and House approval of controversial legislation to implement the treaties, came a month after President Barack Obama and senior officials provided greater detail on their export control reform plans, including the results of efforts to apply their approach to an existing class of controlled items.

The Obama administration is shifting U.S. policy on export controls by focusing its efforts on “crown jewel” technology and items, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said last month.

The plan, announced April 20 in a speech to a Business Executives for National Security meeting in Washington, would align procedures across multiple bureaucracies in the near term without new legislation. It also calls for working with Congress to adopt new laws that would make a single agency responsible for export licenses, possibly by the end of this year. Many key elements have yet to be detailed, including which specific weapons and dual-use goods might be moved to new tiers or removed entirely from control lists. Dual-use goods are items, technology, and information that have both military and civilian uses.

Congress adjourned in October without acting on proposed defense trade treaties inked in 2007 with Australia and the United Kingdom. Other presidentially directed adjustments in how the Department of State administers defense trade did progress, with a new fee structure announced for license reviews. (Continue)