US Looking to Continue Revising Space Export Controls, Official Says

“Sometimes, as we change administrations, everybody wants to have a reset along the way,” said Chirag Parikh, executive secretary of the National Space Council. “I think in this case, party independent, I think everybody wants to be able to move forward on these efforts.”

The rules, issued by the Commerce and State departments, would reduce license requirements for exports of certain space-related items to a range of U.S. trading partners and propose to transfer export control jurisdiction over other space-related defense items from State to Commerce, among other changes (see 2410180027).

Parikh, speaking during a public briefing about the new rules at the Commerce Department, called the export control changes “long overdue,” adding that sometimes the government needs to “get out of the way and allow business-to-business opportunities to exist.”

But he also said more needs to be done to allow companies in friendly nations to work closer together and help their governments explore space. The U.S. has “grand ambitious plans” for space, Parikh said, and needs help from industry for work on issues related to commercial space stations and ways to address “some of our most pressing” national security issues.

“I'm sure if I took a poll of every single person” listening to the briefing and asked “did we go far enough, the answer, of course, will be no,” Parikh said. “This is not the destination. This is the journey, and this is a significant step forward in what we've all been clamoring for, for the better part of a decade.”

But Parikh also said revising the export controls was challenging, adding that there was a “tremendous amount of contentious, productive debate” within the U.S. government on how it should reduce the licensing requirements, which hadn’t been overhauled in years. Matt Borman, the Bureau of Industry and Security deputy assistant secretary for export administration, said during the briefing that the changes represent the “most significant modernization of our space related export controls” since the Obama administration’s export control reform initiative launched in 2011.

“The bureaucracy sometimes can be stifling, but the fact is, we got it out in a period of time where we hope that we'll be able to [finalize] these rules before the end of the administration,” Parikh said. “That's what has driven the urgency to be able to move these things forward.”

One BIS rule, which took effect Oct. 23, removes controls for certain spacecraft and related items for exports and reexports to Australia, Canada and the U.K., while another interim final rule would reduce license requirements on certain less sensitive space-related items to more than 40 countries, among other changes. A third rule from BIS, issued in proposed form, could transfer the export control jurisdiction of certain space-related defense items from the State Department’s U.S. Munitions List, overseen by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, to the BIS Commerce Control List.

A proposed rule issued by DDTC would add and remove items from the USML in concert with that BIS proposed rule.

Officials during the briefing said they are especially interested in public comments about more items that should be moved from the USML to the CCL because they no longer provide a “critical military or intelligence advantage.” Borman said those items, if transferred, could benefit from eased export restrictions because BIS has “much more discretion in terms of general authorizations than typically State has under its law and regulations.”

Michael Tu, associate headquarters export administrator at NASA, specifically asked for feedback on DDTC’s proposed revised definition for “spacecraft” in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. “It's kind of difficult, I think, to define a spacecraft within the context and for the purposes of export control,” he said. The proposed change “clarifies things for us, and hopefully you feel the same,” Tu said, but if not, the government would “really like to be aware so that we can try to address that up front.”

The agencies said they plan to soon publish online the responses to some of the questions they have received about the new rules.