President to tout steps on export overhaul

President Obama on Tuesday will tout the steps his
administration has taken to overhaul the nation’s export control system, which
many view as an outdated relic of the Cold War.

Obama’s pre-recorded remarks to the Department of Commerce’s
conference on export controls and policy will come one year after he ordered a
broad review of America’s export control regime.

{mosads}The president has called for reforms that would prioritize
restrictions on key technologies and items that pose serious threats to
national security. Obama has said an updated export control system will boost
economic growth and create jobs.

Members of the Cabinet, including Defense Secretary Robert
Gates, are orchestrating the reform effort. Gates laid out the administration’s
plan in April.

“The United States is thought to have one of the most
stringent export regimes in the world. But stringent is not the same as
effective,” Gates said in an address to the Business Executives for National
Security. 

“It makes little sense to use the same lengthy process to
control the export of every latch, wire and lug nut for a piece of equipment
like the F-16 when we have already approved the export of the whole aircraft,”
Gates added. 

Obama on Tuesday is expected to touch on the
administration’s new criteria for selecting items that need to be placed on export
control lists. He is also announcing a consolidated policy to ensure the export
control lists at the State and Commerce departments are consistent and in
harmony. 

State and Commerce are charged with issuing licenses to
companies that want to export items that could have commercial and military
purposes and, as a result, might be considered sensitive to national security.

The two agencies are often locked in turf battles over what
should be licensed for export. Critics say the process is muddled by overly
arcane criteria that often overlap and create confusion for those applying for
licenses.

The system has not been updated in decades. Critics complain the system places unnecessary restrictions on goods that are widely
available in the commercial market, even as other, more dangerous technologies
are sold without limit.

National Security Adviser James Jones said in a speech on
Capitol Hill earlier this summer that the administration ultimately wants to
create a new and independent agency that will merge all export licensing
activities under a board of directors that report to the president.

The new agency’s board of directors would be comprised of
the Cabinet officials of the departments with oversight of export controls.
Those Cabinet members include the secretaries of the departments of Defense,
State, Commerce, Treasury and Homeland Security.

Obama will also announce Tuesday that he plans to sign an
executive order that will create an enforcement center where all the agencies
in charge of export issues can coordinate their policing activities, according
to several sources who asked not to be quoted by name.

The president is also expected to announce that the agencies
involved in export control issues will switch to a single IT system.

The White House is making several critical changes at the
executive branch level, but the most difficult step would be to win
congressional backing for the overhaul. The administration will need
legislation to create the single licensing agency and the enforcement
coordination agency.

While the White House has yet to send legislative proposals
to Congress, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Rep. Howard Berman
(D-Calif.), has already put together its own draft legislation to overhaul the
outdated system. The House panel, however, would only mark up an overhaul bill
this fall if the window opened for a full House vote on it.