Commerce’s Validated End User program takes off

Commerce’s Validated End User program takes off The U.S. Commerce Department will make a newly launched export program, which promises to eliminate licensing requirements for certain Chinese and Indian companies who demonstrate strict compliance with U.S. export controls, a top priority for promotion in the waning days of the Bush administration.
   In mid-October, the department announced the first five Chinese companies to be included in the Validated End User (VEU) program. According to the department, these companies in 2006 imported about $54.3 million worth of U.S. goods under licenses, or about 18 percent of total U.S. licensed exports to China.
   “Through this program, American companies will find it easier to export certain U.S. products to customers that meet the security standards of a U.S. government interagency review,” said Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, in a speech before the Bureau of Industry and Security Update 2007 Conference on Export Controls and Policy in Washington Thursday.
   “The VEU program will serve as a market-based incentive for companies that import U.S. items to use those items in a responsible fashion,” he added.
   The VEU program, which took effect in June, includes a list of items covering 31 entries on the Commerce Control List, such as aircraft and aircraft engines, avionics and inertial navigation systems, lasers, depleted uranium, underwater cameras and propulsion systems, certain composite materials, and some telecommunications equipment for space communications or air defense.
   Mario Mancuso, Commerce’s undersecretary for industry and security, told reporters on Thursday that the VEU program will be rolled out to Chinese and Indian companies, and with an eye toward a “handful of other countries,” in a “paced way.”
   “We have no interest in rubber stamping” the VEU program, Mancuso said. He emphasized that the approval process depends on cooperation of interagency partners from the Defense and State departments.
   “We’re working very hard with the Department of Commerce to make that work,” said Donald H. Mahley, deputy assistant secretary for threat reduction, export controls and negotiations at the State Department. ' Chris Gillis