International Trade Law News

The Center for Strategic and International Studies is holding a program on State Department export control reform efforts on February 26, 2008 in Washington, DC.

The program will feature an opening address by John Rood, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, followed by a question and answer period with Frank Ruggiero, Assistant Secretary of State for Defense Trade and Regional Security and Beth McCormick, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Technology Security Policy and National Disclosure Policy and Director of the Defense Technology Security Administration.

For more information or to register see the following link on the CSIS website.

Speaking of State Department export controls, the CSIS issued a report today entitled "Smart Power Through Space", which examines ways for the U.S. to frame its space activities and provides recommendations for the next administration on the space sector. One of the report's recommendations relates to space-related export controls. Specifically, the recommendation states:

Recommendation 5: The United States must reassess the application of the International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR) as it is applied to space. Not only have these requirements harmed our domestic technological and manufacturing base, but they have had a drastic negative effect on both the hard and soft power utilization of space. Currently, ITAR dramatically increases the transactional costs of cooperation with the United States and therefore introduces a strong systemic global bias toward isolation. This encourages other nations to independently develop indigenous dual-use infrastructure and technology, potentially increasing their hard power capabilities, while reducing our ability to monitor new developments first hand.

Labels: DDTC, Export Controls