Eastern Bloc to Get Sensitive Technology : Europe: But U.S. blocks preferred status on controlled high-tech goods for Soviet Union.

An international group screening the sale of sensitive technology has granted preferential treatment to Eastern Europe, recognizing it no longer presents a serious strategic threat, a U.S. official said today.

However, the United States blocked moves by the majority of the group to grant the same preferred status to the Soviet Union.

“The strategic threat is changing, and COCOM must adapt,” said a U.S. delegate to the special two-day executive meeting of the Coordination Committee for Multilateral Export Control. The Paris session ended late Thursday.

COCOM said an intensified review will begin immediately aimed at loosening the list of controlled high-tech goods in the areas of telecommunications, machine tools and computers, “the areas most meaningful to the development of the East,” the U.S. official said.

Another official close to the talks, also speaking on condition of anonymity, criticized the U.S. position, saying: “I don’t think the Americans conceded anything. Their position is thoroughly old-fashioned, based on the Cold War perception of the Soviet Union as a country with missiles aimed at America’s heartland. There is no recognition of the changes, no sympathy for the problems there.”

Decisions are reached by consensus among COCOM members, which include Japan, Australia and all 16 NATO countries except Iceland. The group, formed about 40 years ago, screens technology exports to prevent sensitive items from being diverted to military uses by Communist governments.

The group’s work has become far more complex with the rapid moves toward democracy by the Soviet Union and countries such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, the three nations that stand to benefit immediately by the new preferred status, which means their applications will be more favorably viewed.

Even with the change of status, Eastern Europe will not have the status enjoyed by China.

“There’s still the question of diversion to Soviet military use. That’s not a problem with China,” the U.S. official said.