[Satellite News – 1-23-08]  U.S. President George W. Bush signed a package of directives to reform U.S. defense trade policies and practices, the White House announced Jan. 22.
    According to a fact sheet released by the U.S. Department of State, “the package of reforms required under this directive will improve the manner in which the U.S. Department of State licenses the export of defense equipment, services and technical data, enabling the U.S. government to respond more expeditiously to the military equipment needs of our friends, allies and particularly our coalition partners.”
    While the actual directives have not yet been released, Remy Nathan, director of international affairs at the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) said that many of the reforms appear to have followed recommendations made by the Coalition for Security and Competitiveness in March 2007.
    “AIA is a member of the coalition, and we launched 19 recommendations to make the U.S. export control system more predictable, efficient and transparent,” he said. “It’s our sense in the State Department fact sheets that there’s some reference to procedural reforms. Many of the recommendations that came from the coalition were just that, process improvements that did not require regulatory or legislative change.”
    None of the information released mentioned the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), a State Department policy that controls the export and import of defense-related articles and services on the United States Munitions List, which critics say inhibits the ability of American space companies to compete in the world market. Nathan said that the AIA did not focus on technology- or country-specific recommendations, but the actions indicated by the State Department fact sheet could be seen as a foot in the door.
    “When it comes to satellite components manufacturers, I would argue that to the extent that they are dealing with items that are munitions list items, they will benefit just like everyone else with the ability to get these licenses processed in a more predictable, efficient and transparent manner,” he said. “I’m encouraged by the fact that the State Department singled out for attention the commodity jurisdiction process and talked about how they’re going to try to take steps to ensure effectiveness and efficiency. That potentially creates the opportunity to evaluate that mechanism and make sure it’s functioning appropriately to balance out the consistent needs of U.S. national security and economic and competitive imperatives. If you make sure it’s working right and then you might be able to feed in thornier issues that we’ve had in the past and see what comes out.”
    Nathan also said it would be hard to predict when the directives would be released, since while some of the actions would simply be new procedures, others might require action from Congress.