BXA CHIEF EMPHASIZES NEED TO UPDATE EXPORT ADMINISTRATION ACT

BXA CHIEF EMPHASIZES NEED TO UPDATE EXPORT ADMINISTRATION ACT    The Bush administration believes the timing is right in Congress to pass legislation to amend the government’s Cold War-era export control rules.
   Versions of the so-called Export Administration Act of 2001 are under review in both the House and Senate. The legislation has garnered bipartisan support from senior ranking representatives and senators.
   “Hopefully it will be voted upon by the August recess,” said Kenneth I. Juster, undersecretary for the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Export Administration, which enforces the Export Administration Act. “We remain optimistic that we can get this legislation passed sooner rather than later … It’s a high priority of this administration.”
   The State and Defense departments also support the pending legislation.
   For six years, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act authority of the president has kept the 1979 EAA alive. Last fall, Congress passed legislation to extend the current EAA through Aug. 20.
   Juster said the administration favors the latest EAA legislation because it allows the president to exercise export control powers when the country’s national security is at risk, while at the same time modernizes the export control process.
   For years, groups representing the computer, software, telecommunications, satellite, machine tools and aerospace industries have complained that the current rules place their products at a competitive disadvantage on the world market. The industry has been generally supportive of the pending EAA legislation, Juster said.
   The bill also increases the penalties for corporations that break the law to $5 million per violation or ten times the value of the export, which ever is greater. Criminal penalties for individuals would be raised from $250,000 to $1 million, and civil penalties would be increased from $10,000 to $500,000. The 2001 EAA calls for increased budget for enforcement activities, including $4.5 million to conduct end-use checks.
   If the amended EAA is passed, it will also require the administration to make more use of multilateral export control regimes rather than unilateral controls to control exports to overseas entities and rogue nations that pose a national security threat.