BIS chief praises China for open export end-use checks

BIS chief praises China for open export end-use checks    A senior official of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said his inspectors have been able to check the end-use of exports in China without resistance from authorities in that country.
   “We have not run into any problems,” said Kenneth L. Juster, undersecretary of commerce for industry and security, at a press conference in Washington Monday. He added there have been no signs of diversion from the intended use of the U.S. exports to China.
   Until last year, Commerce officials complained of China’s resistance to end-use inspections. The concern was that exports intended for commercial use could end up in the hands of the Chinese military for weapons manufacturing.
   Juster credits the Bush administration’s Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade with China in April for paving the way to end-use visit cooperation. “We firmly believe that this move will help facilitate expanded trade in high-technology and other controlled items,” Juster said in his speech to shippers attending the Update 2004 Conference on Export Controls and Policy.
   Juster also pointed to similar improvements underway in India. “Those measures have, in turn, enabled us to modify U.S. export licensing policies to foster increased cooperation in commercial space programs and permit certain exports to power plants at safeguarded nuclear facilities,” he said.