LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic Universe-Document

LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic

November 1, 1999, Monday

SECTION: WORLD TRADE; Pg. 3

LENGTH: 501 words

HEADLINE: Administration seeks changes

BYLINE: BY JACK LUCENTINI

BODY:
One key goal of U.S. export control laws, which limit the sale of high- techgoods abroad, has always been to keep unfriendly governments from using the technology to build military hardware.

But the Clinton administration's top export control official says it has become impossible to control the sale of computers with potential military uses, because they are mass-marketed in retail stores worldwide.

William A. Reinsch, undersecretary of commerce for export administration, made the point in a bid to persuade skeptical members of the House Armed Services Committee to expedite a proposed loosening of export controls. The decision would affect how easily computer makers can sell their goods abroad, and what kind of licensing requirements they have to go through.

""The level of computational power used to develop all the bombs in the current U.S. nuclear arsenal, for example, is less than that found today in many workstations,'' said Reinsch in remarks prepared for a hearing of the committee Thursday.

Computer makers testified that they need the export restrictions eased quickly, because in coming weeks they will mass-market newly powerful chips of the type currently subject to export restrictions. They said they will lose their global edge if the restrictions continue.

But some witnesses testified that the current export-control system works fine.

To say the U.S. military built its arsenal on computers that are primitive by today's standards misses the point, said Stephen Bryen, former director, of the Defense Department's Defense Technology Security Administration.

The more powerful computers, which still can be controlled, would help unfriendly nations reduce their military-development costs dramatically, he said, and to ease restrictions on those would be disastrous.

This equipment could help countries develop advanced nuclear capabilities without conducting real-life tests that give away their plans, Bryen said.

These high-performance devices also could let countries develop new nuclear weapons ""that can penetrate deeply buried missile silos, or develop advanced neutron nuclear devices,'' he added in his prepared testimony.

Export controls work well in their current form, testified Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.

He cited examples including a 1998 incident in which the government denied an application by Digital Equipment Corp. to sell a high-powered computer to the Nuclear Power Corp. of India. ""The application was wisely denied,'' he testified.

The House Armed Services Committee is unlikely to agree to any attempt to loosen export controls. Its Republican leadership sees the Clinton administration as too willing to please manufacturers at the expense of national security.

The Clinton administration already decided to loosen export controls in July, but the decision won't take effect until January unless Congress acts quickly. Computer makers say January is too late.

LOAD-DATE: November 1, 1999