Deemed export advisory group makes progress

Deemed export advisory group makes progress The U.S. Commerce Department's Deemed Export Advisory Committee, a group of 12 senior industry and academic officials tasked with updating the country's regulations for foreign nationals' access to certain U.S. technologies, will plan to hold at least three meetings in 2007.
   The meeting schedule is expected to be published soon in the Federal Register.
   A regulatory effort last year by the department's Bureau of Industry and Security to strengthen its deemed export rules caused a backlash from industry and universities, which argued that severe restrictions on access to knowledgeable foreign nationals would cause their research and development programs to suffer.
   The department formed the Deemed Export Advisory Committee shortly after withdrawing the proposed rule in early June. The committee held its first meeting in Washington on Oct. 12.
   Bernard Kritzer, director of BIS's Office of National Security and Technology Transfer Controls, told the Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee (RPTAC) on Tuesday that the committee's work is 'going along very well.'
   Until his recent nomination to U.S. defense secretary, Robert Gates, former CIA director and Texas A&M University president, served as co-chairman of the committee.
   While the department considers Gates' replacement, Kritzer noted that just having someone like the former CIA director in the Deemed Export Advisory Committee 'shows the seriousness which the issue is being taken.'