Administration Tightens Curbs on Exporting Chemicals for Weapons

The Bush Administration on Thursday announced tougher export controls on commercial technology and products that also can be used to produce chemical and biological weapons and missile delivery systems.

The move is, in part, a reaction to problems encountered with Iraq, to which U.S. companies exported more than $1 billion worth of such “dual use” goods in the past five years, contributing to the Iraqi war machine that U.S. troops eventually had to face.

“Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons against his own citizens, his use of Scud missiles to terrorize civilian populations and the chilling specter of germ warfare and nuclear weapons have brought home the dangers proliferation poses to American interests and global peace and stability,” the White House said in a formal statement.

The new Commerce Department regulations, which will be formally published today in the Federal Register, implement an executive order issued by President Bush last November after he pocket-vetoed tough export restrictions passed overwhelmingly by the Congress. At the time, Bush said that the congressional measure unduly restricted his flexibility to act.

In particular, Bush said the law would have forced him to impose sanctions against countries that the United States might not want to alienate. The new regulations do not call for mandatory sanctions.

Elisa Harris, a chemical weapons expert at the Brookings Institution, called the Administration’s Enhanced Proliferation Control Initiative “a very useful step.” But she and other experts in the field said it does not go far enough.

The broadened controls apply to equipment, chemicals and entire plants that can be used to manufacture chemical or biological weapons.

The regulations expand from 11 to 50 the number of chemicals that require export licenses. Additionally, they impose new licensing requirements on exporters when they know, or are informed, that their assistance could aid a foreign program dealing with missiles or chemical or biological weapons.

Individuals who violate the law could face up to 10 years in jail or fines up to $1 million, according to a Commerce spokesman.

“Commerce has the ability to put any company out of business,” he commented.

Companies will be required to obtain licenses to export the dual-use equipment to most countries in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, plus other countries suspected of producing chemical or biological weapons.

The listing of particular countries has been a sensitive issue between the Commerce and State departments, with the latter not wishing to alienate individual countries by naming them but ultimately agreeing to do it.

Among the countries on the list are such U.S. allies as Israel, Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The other nations are Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bulgaria, Myanmar, China, Cuba, North Korea, Romania, the Soviet Union, Taiwan, Vietnam and South Africa.

Administration officials insist that the new, tighter restrictions will not unduly burden “legitimate commerce.” Commerce officials declined to estimate the economic impact on U.S. companies, but one said that last year, industrial chemicals were the second-largest category of U.S. exports.

One published estimate puts the new program’s impact on U.S. firms at $50 billion to $75 billion.

However, Michael Walls, a spokesman for the Chemical Manufacturers Assn., said that U.S. chemical firms export $39 billion worth of goods a year and that the 50 chemicals regulated under the new program would account for less than $1 billion of those exports.

Still, Walls said his group has reservations about the program.

“The problem with the regulations coming out tomorrow is that they are unilateral in nature,” he said. “In effect, the regulations almost presume U.S. manufacturers are the sole source of chemicals and equipment; we are not.”

But Harris of the Brookings Institution disputed that contention.

“There is a role for the United States to play in taking the lead and urging other countries to use restraint,” she said. “I don’t buy the argument by private industry that if everyone is not doing it, it’s not worthwhile.”

Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher said, “We will seek maximum cooperation by other countries to adopt similar controls to stop the spread of these weapons.”

Some critics say the new rules don’t go far enough. One U.S. Senate source, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the Administration move as “a preemptive strike” attempting to ward off tough new legislation on export controls. Last month, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a slightly modified version of the bill that Bush vetoed last year; it awaits action in the House.