Unified or bifurcated? Export controls at a crossroads

Difficulty with ‘striking an appropriate balance between national security and export competitiveness has made the subject of export controls controversial for decades…Aspects of the U.S. export control system have long been criticized by exporters, nonproliferation advocates, allies, and other stakeholders as being too rigorous, insufficiently rigorous, cumbersome, obsolete, inefficient, or combinations of these descriptions.’

So says the introduction to a new report published by the US Congressional Research Service (‘CRS’) on Export Control Reform, published 8 January.

The report does not appear to be making recommendations so much as outlining the history of US export control reform and pertinent issues that have arisen, setting the stall for any future developments.

It says that in considering the future of the US export control system, the United States Congress ‘may weigh the merits of a unified export control system…or the continuation of the present bifurcated system by reauthorizing the EAA or enacting replacement legislation.’

In doing so, it says, Congress may ‘debate the record of the present dual-use system maintained by emergency authority, the aims and effectiveness of the present non-proliferation control regimes, the maintenance of the defense industrial base, and the balance between maintaining economic competitiveness and preserving national security.’

The report is at:
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R41916.pdf