Where Industry and Security Intersect
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Washington, DC 20230
24 October 2006
- The SITAC meeting was held at the Department of Commerce in Room 3884 from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. The meeting began with a brief introduction of the attendees. Mr. Goodrich (Fluke Inc.), chair of the SITAC, provided several handouts including an agenda, the prior meeting minutes, and the membership roster for the meeting.
- The open session was structured to cover the following topics which will be discussed later:
1. Introductions
2. Remarks from the Bureau of Industry and Security Manangement
3. Industry Presentations
4. Government Presentations
5. New Business
6. Closed Session
7. Meeting Adjournment
- Introductions.
Mr. Goodrich called the meeting to order at 9:30 am and asked for everyone present to introduce themselves.
- Remarks from BIS Management.
After the brief introductions, Bernie Kritzer, Director of the the Office of National Security and Technology Transfer Controls (NSTTC), addressed the meeting attendees by explaining that Dave McCormick was accepting a new position at the National Security Council and that Christopher Padilla had been confirmed as the Assistant Secretary for Export Administration. He continued providing some licensing statistics as follows:
FY2006 (10/1/05-6/30/06):
Total 2843 export applications processed
2,661 approved, 174 RWA’s, 8 rejected
Average processing time: 34 days
The top ten destinations requesting commercial US infrared cameras were in descending order Japan, Germany, UK, South Korea, the Russia Federation, Italy, Australia, Taiwan, Mexico, and the Netherlands.
He explained that there was an 8% increase in licensing volume over the previous time period. This most likely was due to the fact that multilateral controls on amorphous silicon cameras had been adopted at Wassenaar. Furthermore, he commented that 98% of the export licenses for night vision cameras had been referred out within 10 days to the interagency due to the good work of his staff as well as the good support documentation that the industry was providing to the USG.
- Government Presentations.
Brad Botwin formerly with the Office of Strategic Industries and Economic Security (SIES) commented on the night vision industry survey that was published. He explained that while the industry as a whole was doing remarkably well, that there was a subsector, the uncooled camera market, that was suffering. He also explained that foreign competition in this market was growing from companies such as ULIS in France and that U.S. market share was declining as shown in the decline in actual exports of night vision related products. He also explained that companies are having trouble finding enough qualified people to perform the necessary tasks. He also mentioned that investment in R&D was not as robust as he would expect given the sales of night vision related equipment although there was increased spending in the Commercial/Defense sector. Mr. Botwin also provided the members attending with copies of the published study.
John Albert representative from the Department of State and head of the US Wassenaar delegation commented on the current Wassenaar List Review. He explained that 21/22 US proposals had been adopted. In particular, proposals to decontrol certain linear focal plane arrays and their associated cameras were likely to be accepted. Similarly, revision of controls for certain lasers were also being favorably considered. He also explained that Category 6 will continue to be actively debated in the coming year as a Technical Working Group (TWG) on low light level cameras will likely be formed in the coming weeks. Also the validity note for amorphous silicon based cameras will be discussed as well as potential decontrols for certain thermal imaging cameras. Dr. Harrington, a consultant to the Department of State, explained how the U.S. successfully was able to revise the controls on certain lasers after several years of hard work and what he learned about international negotiations.
Bernie Kritzer mentioned that the draft proposal to modify existing unilateral controls on night vision cameras was under review by the other agencies and that he anticipated their responses in November. He also mentioned that the inaugural meeting of the Deemed Exports Advisory Committee (DEAC) occurred on 12 September and is being supported by very senior individuals from academia, industry and government. He finally said that comments to the proposed China Rule would be due by December 4.
Kevin Kurland, Director of the Office of Technology Evaluations (OTE), than gave an overview of his office. Currently he has slots for nine employees but expects that the number will be increased to eleven soon. His office will be the analytical arm of the Bureau. Portions of the SIES office have been transferred to his group. He will handle foreign availability assessments as well as conduct short supply reviews and the Technical Advisory Committee function would be transferred to his office. His office would gauge the effectiveness of the export control system by working with the Office of Export Enforcement. He would also be responsible for conducting longer term studies which would be used to shape the strategic plan for export controls. He will need to evaluate the export control differences between countries and try to quantify the cost of export controls by analyzing lost sales data. He will also provide input to export control policies by determining to what extent export licenses are issued by unused.
Mr. Richard Buentello, the manager of the Navy’s Best Manufacturing Practices (BMP) program was invited to speak at the SITAC by Brad Botwin. Mr. Buentello explained that the BMP program allows experienced individuals within the government, academia, and industry to visit a company who believes that they have a proven process and have that process evaluated. These evaluations take approximately one week to complete. If the evaluation committee determines that the company does have a "best manufacturing practice" that company will be listed in a directory describing their capability so that other companies can review the directory and solicit the participant instead of reinventing the process. All of the published information is done so with the consent of the participant. Some of their participants have gone on to receive the coveted Baldrige award. This evaluation is done at no charge to the participating company and is done at a time of their choosing. Mr. Buentello closed with offering anyone in the audience the opportunity to contact him and get additional information that was not provided in his handouts.
- New Business.
Mr. Goodrich mentioned that he had sent the Annual Report to Otto Wolfe for his review.
Mr. Borman suggested that the SITAC should consider methodically going through each ECCN and determining whether or not controls should be revised. Many in other areas were not updated and wanted the SITAC to determine if that was the case for Category 6 items as well.
Mr. Goodrich than concluded the open session and after a brief break, brought to order the closed session.