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Manufacturers applaud move to ease export restrictions, boost overseas sales

WASHINGTON, DC – 02/07/08 – President George Bush has approved major changes aimed at modernizing the country's controls on the export of sensitive products to foreign nations in an effort to promote a "more efficient and transparent export licensing process."

US-based manufacturers are applauding the move saying the changes should boost the ability of American companies to make overseas sales and greatly reduce the number of products for which businesses must obtain export control licenses, particularly at a time when the weakened dollar is boosting US goods exports to record levels.

John Engler, the head of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the former governor of Michigan, said in an interview with the Associated Press that approval of the changes “has been a top priority for manufacturers who believe it will streamline what is now a cumbersome review process.”

The move, he said, “will keep sensitive technologies out of the hands of those seeking to harm us without hampering the ability of high-tech industries to expand exports.”
Industries expected to benefit the most include companies making high-tech products such as computers, semiconductors, machines tools and aerospace products, according to trade analysts.

The licensing process will continue to be handled by the US State Department for the sale of military equipment overseas and the US Commerce Department (DOC), which is charged with providing export control licenses for so-called dual use technology which can have applications in both the civilian and military sectors.

The DOC processed around 35,000 applications for export licenses in 2006 while the State Department processed around 65,000 such licenses.
Engler said manufacturers hope that these totals will be greatly reduced under the new directives.

"US companies had been losing out, even when they were competitive in price, because they faced six or nine months of waiting and uncertainty on whether their export license applications would be approved," he said.

The hope, Engler added, ''was that Bush's new directive would eliminate the need for thousands of export decisions that the government is making now by removing controls on lower-technology products that are readily available on the global market place.''

In announcing the development, the White House said the new directives would make sure that the country would still be able to meet the "unprecedented security challenges, including terrorist threats from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and advanced conventional weapons to unstable regions of the world."

The president’s decision to approve the revisions follows comments by top Chinese trade officials who said the US should ease its existing export policies to help balance the US-China trade gap, which grew to a record $142.22 billion in the first 11 months of last year.

The now-revised US hi-tech export regulations “were one of the reasons for the country's trade deficit with China,” said Wang Chao, assistant minister of commerce, who told attendees at the US-China Clean Energy Dialogue in Beijing that “expanded hi-tech exports from the US will ease the gap."

Wang’s comments were echoed by Yao Wenping, vice-president of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME).
"Every year, many Chinese enterprises want to import hi-tech materials and equipment from the US, but encounter obstacles,” she said.

Clean energy could be a field where the US can make more efforts to ease its export controls to help balance Sino-US trade and promote healthy economic and trade exchanges between the two sides, said Yao. "Products in this field are purely for civilian use."

Every year Chinese enterprises import huge amounts of solar-energy materials, equipment and technologies from the US, she said, adding that there are 50 to 60 such companies in the country, most of which are privately owned.

Yao estimated that this year, the value of clean-energy technology procurement and cooperation between Chinese and US firms could amount to $10 billion and if "they did not encounter obstacles it could be even higher.''

She said China is ready to introduce more clean-energy technologies and products from the US with the organizers of the upcoming China Import and Export Fair in April planning to feature a special area to exhibit US-made clean-energy technologies and equipment.

A delegation of 17 US energy companies recently visited Beijing and met with officials of China's National Development and Reform Commission before traveling south to Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

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