White House to create a new body for export

The US will establish a single independent agency to handle all issues related to export control and licencing that would report directly to the White House.

The Single Licencing Authority (SLA), would be governed by a Board of Directors comprising Cabinet officials of the current departments with export control responsibilities, National Security Advisor Gen (rtd) James Jones said at a meeting here recently.

Restriction on export of high-technology and certain equipment is considered by New Delhi as a major hindrance in its deepening ties with the United States.

Indian officials are expected to raise this issue with Jones, when he visits New Delhi later this week.
    
"We are conducting a comprehensive overhaul of our entire system. The purpose of our reform is to ensure our system meets our national security and non-proliferation goals," said Benjamin Chang, spokesman of the National Security Council.
    
"While our effort is not country-specific, we believe that it will benefit our trade with all our key trading partners," he said when asked if the latest move would benefit India.
    
The White House move to establish the Single Licensing Agency (SLA) that will merge all export licensing activities under a board of directors reporting to the US President is backed by some of the nation's most powerful trade associations and companies.
    
"Export controls have a far-reaching impact on our broader national security interests, as they affect the health and competitiveness of our industrial base and our interoperability with our allies.
    
Most significantly, they enhance our ability to provide our men and women in uniform with the best tools possible, while ensuring that those tools do not find their way into the hands of the adversaries they may face," Jones said.
    
In his recent major speech on the administration's export control reform plans, at a luncheon hosted by the Aerospace Industries Association, Jones said "despite its importance, export controls have not received the sustained high-level attention they deserve, and as a result, US's export control system has not changed to meet the new requirements of a changed world.
    
"Our system was designed during the Cold War for a bi-polar world that no longer exists, with a very different economy from the one we have today," he noted.
    
"Procurement patterns have changed, markets have changed, the threats we face are different, and the economy is global. What has not changed, however, is the basic structure and premise of our export control process," he said.