Regular Review of High-Tech Exports OKd

President Reagan for the first time has authorized systematic Defense Department review of high-technology exports to non-communist countries, settling a bitter Administration dispute and giving security concerns more prominence in trade policy, Administration officials have said.

The decision was contained in a classified memo signed by Robert C. McFarlane, White House national security affairs adviser, eight days ago and sent to the secretaries of state, defense and commerce, officials said.

Reagan intervened after the Commerce and Defense departments failed to reach agreement on their own despite more than two years of wrangling.

The directive allows the Pentagon to review all commercial applications for licenses to export certain types of equipment to 15 non-communist countries, from which the Defense Department has said it fears the equipment could be reshipped to the Soviet Union.

Exports that will come under Pentagon jurisdiction include computer parts, scientific instruments and other equipment that Defense Department officials believe could have military application.

Directive Called Victory The long-running dispute reflects a wider disagreement between the constituencies that the two departments tend to represent, Administration officials said Friday.

Pentagon officials have been most concerned with what they see as a hemorrhage of valuable Western technology to the Soviet Union, while Commerce officials have worried that the Defense Department would delay and impede harmless trade, injuring the position of U.S. companies in the world market.

Pentagon officials said they view the presidential directive as a major victory.

“It means that a long impasse has come to an end,” one official said. “It means that the security concerns expressed by the Department of Defense from the earliest days of the Administration will now be given greater weight. And hopefully it means an end to a dispute between the two departments that has resulted in too many licenses being granted without review by the Department of Defense and too many questionable ones being granted overall,” the official said.

Commerce officials said, however, that they are satisfied with the mechanisms for review and appeal created in the presidential decision.

“They (Commerce officials) wanted the lead on the whole thing, but at best they come out equal,” one official said. “We don’t see this as a win or a loss for anybody.”