July 1, 1999
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
Today, I am
announcing reforms to the Administration's export controls on
high-performance computers (HPC) and semiconductors. These policies
will strengthen America's high-tech competitiveness, while maintaining
controls that are needed to maintain our national
security.
These reforms are needed because
of the extraordinarily rapid rate of technological change in the computer
industry. The number-crunching ability of a supercomputer that once
filled a room and cost millions of dollars is now available in an
inexpensive desktop computer. Computers that are widely used by
businesses and can be manufactured by European, Japanese and Asian
companies will soon exceed the limits that I established on
high-performance computers in 1996. These business computers have
become commodities, and next year, U.S. and foreign vendors are expected
to sell 5 million of them.
Maintaining
these controls would hurt U.S. exports without benefiting our national
security. Moreover, a strong, vibrant high-tech industry is in
America's national security interests. That is why I have decided to
raise the licensing threshold of high-performance computers to so-called
"Tier 2" and "Tier 3" countries. For "Tier 3" countries, which
present the greatest risk from a national security viewpoint, the
Administration will continue its policy of maintaining a lower threshold
for military end-users than civilian end-users. I have also
directed my national security and economic advisers to provide me with
recommendations to update our export controls every six months.
Due to
legislation passed by the Congress in 1997, this change will require
Congressional approval and a six month period before it can go into
effect. I will work with the Congress to pass legislation that would
reduce this period to one month, so that we can keep up with the rapid
pace of technological change. I also want to work with the Congress on a
bipartisan basis to explore longer-term solutions to how we deal
with commodities like widely available computers and microprocessors.
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