Where Industry and Security Intersect
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MINUTES OF MEETING
Department of Commerce, Washington, DC
HCHB, Room 3884
April 28, 2009
The SITAC meeting was held at the Department of Commerce in Room 3884 from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. There was a closed session for this meeting.
Open Session.
The open session covered the following topics:
1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Remarks from the Bureau of Industry and Security Management
3. Industry Presentations
4. New Business
The closed session covered the (1) proposed changes to the Regional Stability controls for certain uncooled cameras incorporating microbolometer focal plane arrays, (2) how this rule will be implemented and any clarifications that need to be addressed prior to its publication, (3) a discussion on the foreign availability assessment submitted by the SITAC committee, (4) the proposed jurisdictional framework for night vision cameras, and (4) comments on the latest Wassenaar Arrangement activities.
Welcome and Introductions.
The SITAC chair, Mr. John Goodrich opened the meeting with an introduction of the attendees. The Department of State was represented by Dr. John Albert. The Department of Defense was represented by Todd Carr and Art Kron at the meeting. Several companies did teleconference into the meeting including Motion Video Products (Kris Balch), Maxtech International Inc. (Gabor Fulop), Pressco Technology Inc. (Scott Johnson), Intel (Joseph Kim), Steptoe & Johnson (Edward Krauland), and Mine Safety Appliances (Mike Rupert).
Remarks from the Bureau of Industry and Security Management.
Dr. Costanzo summarized the licensing statistics 1 October 2008 to 16 April 2009. There were 867 export applications closed out which were valued at $119,446,920 USD. Of these 724 were approved, 139 were RWA’d, and 4 were denied. Of the approved cases, 415 license applications were shipped against. The top six destinations for US infrared cameras were by value Germany ($44M), Sweden ($33M), UK($5M), Mexico ($3M), Spain ($2M), and Japan ($2M). The average processing time was 27 days. During the same time period in the previous fiscal year, there were 1332 license applications closed with 1186 were approved, 2 denied, and 144 RWA’d. Of the approved cases, 744 were shipped against. This represents a 34% decline in export licenses for cameras with an ECCN of 6A003.
Mr. Borman, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Export Administration, was introduced. He provided an overview of the proposed changes to the Regional Stability regulations concerning certain uncooled thermal imaging cameras. He stated that both Defense and State cleared on the rule and hoped that a regulation could be published by mid May. Mr. Borman expected that nearly 40% of the license applications pending would be RWA’d after the rule gets published. Mr. Borman also cautioned that more work needs to be done to address the Commodity Jurisdiction process.
Mr. Goodrich next introduced Bill Arvin, representing the Regulatory Division. He summarized the key points of the rule and the process which it needed to go through before it would be published. He explained that the rule was being reviewed by Department lawyers and then needed to be cleared by Rick Wade, who is the Senior Advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Chief of Staff. The rule would then be forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget for their clearance before it is sent to the Federal Register for publication. Bill Arvin explained that the key points of the rule are:
(1) finished cameras incorporating uncooled microbolometers with fewer than 111,000 elements (384 x 288 EU format) will be able to be sent to the European Union license-free.
(2) Post shipment reporting requirement twice a year for unlicensed cameras.
(3) Military end-users will require export authorization from the US.
(4) Software to upgrade frame rate of camera is now controlled.
(5) Cameras operating at 9 Hz and less will require a license to the PRC if they are being sold to the military.
Jim Thompson, Director of the Sensors and Aviation group, provided some general comments on the upcoming Wassenaar meetings. He stated that there were very few Category 6 proposals being forwarded by the US due to the expectation of the new regulation. Only some clarifications to the underwater camera controls in Category 8. He indicated that there was a proposal to increase the threshold of power on stacked array lasers.
John Varesi also commented on the Wassenaar proposals as well. He explained that a proposal on radars was agreed to by DoC for forwarding and that there is continuing discussion on diver detection equipment. Agreement has been reached allowing a reference to ECCN 6A005 for telecommunications equipment identified in Category 5 that incorporates a laser.
Bill Root noted that changes to the low light level controls agreed to at Wassenaar have not been enacted in the CCL despite international agreement in 2007. He asked if this was part of a broader problem of getting interagency approval. State and Commerce do not believe so.
Stanley Kummer, representative from L-3, commented that there has been a considerable decline in export licenses by the Department of Commerce for infrared cameras – 3000 a year ago to about 1600 projected for this year. He said that foreign producers were not missing their opportunity to take the market away from the US at the cost of the USG having no oversight into the overseas infrared camera market.
Industry Presentations.
John Goodrich provided a brief introduction to Kris Balch who was using the teleconferencing feature. John Goodrich explained that Kris Balch is a consultant for high speed digital imaging industry. His company, Motion Video Products was started 10 years ago and is based in San
Diego, California. Kris Balch served on the SITAC from 2002- 2003, as an expert in high speed imaging. Prior to being a consultant, Kris was with Eastman Kodak for over 18 years and served as the Technical Director for Eastman Kodak, MASD. Kris worked for the Navy as a research engineer on ASW after graduating from college. Kris has extensive experience in CCD/CMOS
imaging sensors, camera design, applied application of imaging cameras and various technologies related to electronic imaging. Kris has an electronic engineering degree and a management degree from the EPSE program. After the introduction, a PowerPoint presentation was provided which recommended a number of changes to the high speed camera controls identified in 6A003. The presenter was asked to provide a Wassenaar proposal for his recommendations for the SITAC committee to review and consider.
New Business.
None.
Meeting Adjournment.
Mr. Goodrich then adjourned the open session of the April SITAC meeting.