U.S. Offers to Ease High-Tech Trade : Eastern Europe: President approves overhaul of restrictions on exports of sensitive technology. Allies had pressed for action. The Soviet Union would benefit.

The White House, under pressure from U.S. allies to ease limits on the sale of sensitive technology to the former Soviet Bloc, unveiled a plan Wednesday for a sweeping overhaul of Western restrictions on high-tech exports to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

The proposal, which follows a three-month review of the issue by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and top U.S. intelligence agencies, will be presented formally at a high-level meeting of allied representatives in Paris on June 7.

The plan would eliminate requirements that Western companies obtain export licenses for a variety of personal computers, telecommunications equipment and other high-technology goods destined for East European countries and, in some cases, for the Soviet Union.

U.S. officials had rushed to complete work on the restructuring plan, fearing that too long a delay might cause the collapse of the 17-nation Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls, which has administered the allies’ export control system for 40 years.

President Bush, describing the proposal, said that it effectively would “build higher fences around fewer goods” by slashing the list of restricted items to take account of the recent collapse of the Soviet Bloc in Eastern Europe and by beefing up enforcement for those items that remain.

U.S. strategists said they are reasonably confident that the allies will react favorably to the proposal, even though some countries have been pushing for more sweeping changes. But they conceded that differences could emerge on specific items.

The Administration’s proposal came as the House prepared to begin consideration of a rival Democratic plan that would mandate decontrol of specific items and allow the Soviet Union the same access to Western technology as East European countries.

Bush’s plan would provide easier access to the emerging democracies in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, which have volunteered to help enforcement by setting up policing machinery of their own and allowing U.S. inspection. It would maintain additional restrictions on exports to the Soviet Union.

Legislation being drafted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee would ease restrictions equally for both Moscow and its former satellites. White House officials complain that by mandating specific items to be decontrolled, it would leave them with little flexibility in dealing with U.S. allies on the issue.

The Administration opposes the House bill, as does much of the Senate. By contrast, the Senate is expected only to extend existing authority for the Administration to restrict exports of technology, leaving it to the White House to decide on specific changes.

The conservative Center for Security Policy criticized the Bush proposal, contending that it would give the Soviet Union “unencumbered access” to military technology and erode the allies’ technological edge in decisive areas, such as anti-submarine warfare.

Frank J. Gaffney, the organization’s director, charged that the Administration--less than a week after it completed negotiations aimed at granting new trade concessions to the Soviet Union--is “effectively rewarding” Moscow for its crackdown on Lithuania.

Under the Administration proposal:

About 43 categories of goods, about one-third of the high-technology products now under controls, would be reduced sharply or eliminated from the list, meaning that U.S. businesses no longer would have to obtain licenses to export them.

The allies would impose a so-called China green line--a threshold of technological sophistication now applied to exports to China--below which products could be exported to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union without case-by-case permission.

Specific permission on a case-by-case basis would be required even under the new rules to export certain categories of high-technology products that have military or strategic applications, but the allies would develop a new “core list” by December.

Until that list is drafted, controls would be retained on specific categories of super-sophisticated computers, telecommunications equipment and machine tools, with a proposal that the allies grant “favorable treatment” to cooperating East European countries.

At the same time, Washington intends to insist that the allies beef up their enforcement of the restrictions that remain. In the past, more liberal interpretations of the rules by European governments have led to significant leaks.

The proposal also provides for special treatment for high-technology exports to East Germany during the period of transition before it is formally united with West Germany, a process that may not be finished for several months.

Senior Administration officials who briefed reporters asserted that, in contrast to similar previous efforts, all of the major departments and agencies involved--including the Pentagon--had endorsed the new proposals.

At the same time, a Defense Department official conceded that intelligence analysts still are concerned about continued “diversion” of Western technology to the Soviet Union from former East Bloc countries that now have non-Communist governments.

He said that U.S. officials would monitor the situation closely if the Administration’s proposal is put into effect.

Administration officials estimated Wednesday that if the President’s plan had been in effect last year, it would have eliminated the need for about half of the 81,000 export licenses that the Commerce Department granted.

The products that would be exempted from controls under the new rules would include personal computers, and those earmarked for “favorable treatment” for East European countries would include computers used for banking and travel reservations.