EXCLUSIVE!! Industry calls for an export control regime in India

Neelam Mathews

July 19, 2011

Time- 8;15pm IST

Even as the Aerospace Industries Association welcomed the U.S administration’s proposed rule to relieve low-risk technology exports of burdensome and unnecessary restrictions, India now needs to look at a system that will protect its own technology.

As India looks at design, development and manufacture of sensitive technologies, questions are starting to emerge.

“Does India have any regulations for export control…It will have to put in some pieces..Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has sold its Advance Light Helicopter to a Latin American country…any regulation signed on this? What is the guarantee if the BrahMos is sold to a country that  will not sell it to a rogue state?” says an OEM to Aerospace Diary.

“We can say Iran is our friend, and sell to it. Any guarantees that Pakistan will not get the technology,?” queries an Indian industry official.

Meanwhile, India has welcomed steps taken by the U.S to remove Indian entities from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s ‘Entity List’ and realignment of India in U.S. export control regulations.  

Both sides agreed during Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s visit to India, to continue efforts to fulfill objectives of strengthening export control cooperation envisaged in the Joint Statement of November 2010 as well as on the basis of discussions in the High Technology Cooperation Group held earlier this month.

Perhaps lessons will need to be learnt from the U.S. “For years the U.S. export control system has created confusion and delay in exporting defense equipment to our allies and driven up compliance costs across the industrial base,” said AIA President and CEO Marion C. Blakey. “These reforms are common sense ways of supporting our military partners and our export competitiveness.” 

The (new) U.S rule proposes that after appropriate interagency review and consensus, technologies with low or no military or intelligence sensitivity will be moved off of the U.S. Munitions List to the Commerce Control List.  Exports of these technologies to key military allies and partners-especially if previously approved-may be eligible for more flexible Commerce license exemptions. Further, end items, parts and components that are not “specially designed” for the military will now be subject to the same export control requirements as their commercial market equivalents.

“We support the national security focus of the administration’s export control reforms, and pushed for tighter controls on the Commerce Control List to accommodate low-risk military-use technologies that are reflected in the proposed rule,” Blakey said. “Properly identifying high-risk technologies that should remain on the U.S. Munitions List allows our government to focus its finite resources on controlling transactions that genuinely need the highest level of scrutiny.”

AIA says the U.S government can further enhance national and economic security and foreign policy interests by adopting a program licensing regime that dramatically reduces the number of licenses required for U.S. government defense and security programs.