U.S. to Relax Ban on Fiber Equipment Sales : Technology: Tentative decision follows AT&T; request to sell to Russia and China. Other nations already allow such trade.
The U.S. government, under pressure to let its former Cold War enemies buy state-of-the-art communications equipment, opened the door Friday for the export of advanced fiber-optic technology to China and the former Soviet Union.
The Commerce Department tentatively decided to lift the ban in response to an American Telephone & Telegraph Co. petition arguing that unrestricted foreign competitors are gaining an advantage in the lucrative telecommunications business.
The Commerce Department move is one of the first major attempts by the Clinton Administration to relax the longstanding export bans on high technology following an easing of restrictions on some computer exports earlier this year.
The move comes at a time when the Administration is looking for ways to bolster a recovering U.S. economy. It also coincides with diminished national security concerns since the fall of the Iron Curtain.
At stake is upward of $250 billion worth of telecommunications modernization that experts expect to be undertaken over the next decade in China, the former Soviet Union and developing nations.
“It is another signal that the Clinton Administration is addressing post-Cold War-era realities and, in doing so, examining ways to promote American competitiveness abroad and American jobs at home,” AT&T; said.
In a letter to AT&T;, Assistant Commerce Secretary Sue E. Eckert wrote that the Administration could change its position if conditions warranted: “While this preliminary determination is positive, you should be aware that the situation regarding foreign availability of this equipment is in a state of flux,” she wrote.
But, barring objections by other regulatory bodies, Eckert said the Commerce decision will become final Jan. 9, two days before President Clinton is scheduled to meet with Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Moscow.
Export of fiber-optic cable itself has been allowed to China since the mid-1980s and to Russia since 1992. But the Commerce Department would not permit the export of special digital fiber-optic transmission equipment that is necessary to send calls over the cable. An AT&T; spokesman said the technology would roughly quadruple the transmission capacity of the fiber-optic cable. AT&T; sells the equipment.
“It makes no sense to bar American companies from exporting this equipment to China and the former Soviet Union when these countries can purchase it elsewhere, and are indeed doing so,” the company said.
