U.S. Advised to Revamp Computer Export Curbs

The United States especially since the existing curbs on many components and systems have become virtually unenforceable, a scientific said Thursday.

It urged that the Administration concentrate instead on striving--together with its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies and Japan--to control leakage to the Soviet Bloc of militarily valuable supercomputers and the most advanced computer manufacturing processes.

“The United States cannot afford to be complacent about its computer technology strengths or base export control decisions on an assumption of an invincible lead,” said the National Research Council report, prepared at the request of the State Department. It noted that “as the computer market becomes increasingly global, U.S. firms face increasing foreign competition, mostly from firms operating with fewer export barriers under the same CoCom guidelines.”

CoCom is the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls, comprised of the United States, Japan and all NATO countries except Iceland.

The report contended that “tighter U.S. controls may reflect the absence of a fully effective multilateral control effort, but there is a risk that in the computer area, the United States may lock the proverbial barn door after the horse has escaped.”

Preparing the assessment was a 17-member committee chaired by Seymour E. Goodman, professor of management information systems and policy at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

The National Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering.

The report concluded that “current technological progress will make controls harder to enforce, and technological and market developments combine to make a case for a more focused and flexible control process.”