International Trade Law News

Representative Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), the chairman of the House Committee on International Relations, today announced that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released another in a series of reports on the Commerce Department's dual-use export licensing system. The report, entitled, "Analysis of Data for Exports Regulated by the Department of Commerce", supplements a June 26, 2006 GAO report (GAO-06-638) which found that improvements were needed to correct weaknesses in Commerce's dual-use licensing system for the export of controlled products and technology.

The major findings of the GAO analysis included:

-- Sensitive dual-use goods and technologies specially designated on the Commerce Control List (CCL) only rarely require a license before being exported. The report states that 98.5 percent of goods and technology on the CCL, totaling more than $69 billion, were exported in 2005 without any U.S. Government review or license. This includes 98 percent of all "controlled" dual-use goods and technologies that were exported to China without a license in 2005 ($6.2 billion) , as 93 percent increase from 2004.

-- 99.9 percent of goods classified as EAR99 do not require a license before being exported. More than $555 billion worth of EAR99 goods were exported in 2005 without any license, including 99.9 percent of EAR99 merchandise exported to China, worth more than $33 billion.

-- The leading commodities of EAR 99 merchandise exported without any license in 2005 included industrial machinery ($61 billion), computers, peripherals and semiconductors ($59 billion) and chemicals ($58 billion).

The full text of the GAO report will soon be available on the GAO's website.

Update: The report can be found at the following link: www.gao.gov/new.items/d07197r.pdf.

Labels: Export Controls