US Official: DDTC Denied Just 3 Korea Export Applications Over Last 3 Years
The State Department has been approving the vast majority of export license applications involving South Korea, a senior agency official said this week, stressing that the government doesn’t want to be an impediment to defense trade with the close U.S. ally.
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Mike Vaccaro, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for defense trade controls, said the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls approved about 82% of the nearly 3,000 license applications it received for South Korea over the last three years. Those applications were for items worth nearly $8 billion combined, he said, and mostly involved electronics, engines and aircraft-related parts.
He said DDTC returned without action almost the entire remaining 28% of applications because they either weren’t complete or the agency needed more information from the exporter. He also said DDTC denied just three licenses.
“That number stands out,” Vaccaro said during an event this week hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It just highlights how advanced our cooperation is right now,” he said, adding that “we're all about strengthening this cooperation.”
Vaccaro said he believes DDTC denied those three applications because they involved a reexport or transfer to another country -- not because the U.S. had any “concern” with any specific exports to South Korea. He also said DDTC’s average license processing time for applications involving South Korea over those three years was 39 days, which is less than the 43-day average for all licenses during that same period.
“I think it's a good sign that licenses that are supporting Korean programs or with Korean partners are actually moving through the system faster,” Vaccaro said.
Vaccaro, who was speaking during an event about expanding U.S.-South Korea defense industrial cooperation, said the U.S. wants its exporters to easily be able to do business with South Korea. “We want U.S. companies to be successful internationally,” he said.
Vaccaro specifically pointed to an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in April, which directed agencies to reduce regulatory restrictions around sales of weapons and other military items to U.S. partners (see 2504100009). “That's really been a great charge, and it's something we've been seized with,” he said.
But he also said the State Department is still focused on making sure it only approves licenses to “authorized users for authorized purposes, because if it gets to a bad actor, it puts all our war fighters at risk.”
“Our collaboration on export controls remains vital to strengthen alliance security in supporting regional stability,” he said. “So our goals are that any country that has an advanced defense industrial base, like Korea, you need to have robust export controls that can enable the cooperation not to be a barrier.”
He also noted that the administration is looking to reduce defense trade barriers with other close allies.
“Korea is not unique in the world [for being a country] who wants to strengthen cooperation with U.S. industry and the U.S. government in these spaces. And we, the U.S. government, cannot compel U.S. industry to cooperate with a specific country. Korea and other partners have to make a business case,” Vaccaro said.
“So what we're looking for is a win-win for industry on both sides,” he said, adding “from an export control standpoint, I'm doing my best to be an enabler to that.”