A bipartisan group of US Congressmen has introduced legislation to relax satellite export rules, which they claim have hindered American manufacturers for more than a decade.
Led by House Affairs Committee ranking member Howard Bernman, and co-sponsored…
A bipartisan group of US Congressmen has introduced legislation to relax satellite export rules, which they claim have hindered American manufacturers for more than a decade.
Led by House Affairs Committee ranking member Howard Bernman, and co-sponsored by four House members from both US parties, the ‘H.R. 3288’ bill would amend a 1999 ruling that labelled commercial satellites and related components as weapons on the United States Munitions List (USML). Under the US government’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), this prohibited the export of such parts to security threats including China, but also to NATO allies.
The new bill will still ban outright any satellite-related exports to China and nations the US government accuses of engaging in the state sponsorship of terrorism, including North Korea, Iran, Syria, Sudan and Cuba. However, it will give the US President the flexibility to remove commercial satellites and related components from the USML when appropriate.
The original legislation was approved in 1999 in response to revelations that some US companies had given unauthorised technical assistance to China’s space launch programme. Back then, all foreign commercial satellites had US components, enabling the American government to completely forbid their launch on Chinese launchers. This was intended to limit China gaining launch experience and subsequently advance the development of its intercontinental ballistic missiles.
However, since then, non-US satellite manufacturers such as Thales Alenia Space have developed so-called ITAR-free product lines, enabling Western operators to use Chinese launch vehicles, which can be cheaper for operators.
On 7 October 2011, China Great Wall Industry Corp (CGWIC) launched French operator Eutelsat’s W3C satellite, marking the first time a Chinese firm had placed a Western-built spacecraft since the 1999 ITAR decision.
According to Congressman Don Manzullo, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, the increased red tape in satellite exports over the last decade has significantly impacted the US’ ability to compete on an international scale.
Manzullo explained: “Before 1999, the US share of global satellite manufacturing was 75%. But over the past ten years, it has averaged 44% because of Congress’ overreaction in shifting commercial satellite export licensing decisions to the highly restrictive munitions list. That action provided a competitive advantage to foreign satellite makers at the expense of American manufacturers and American workers.”
The new legislation was strongly endorsed by the Satellite Industry Association (SIA), a trade body based in Washington.
SIA president Patricia Cooper said: “With H.R. 3288, Congress has the opportunity to dramatically improve the competitiveness of the US satellite and space industries and ensure an innovative and thriving US space industrial base.
“SIA and the satellite industry commend the bipartisan co-sponsors of this bill for their leadership in updating an outmoded and overly-restrictive regulation instituted more than a decade ago, which has adversely affected the US space industrial base. We encourage Congress to pass H.R. 3288, both to reinforce our nation’s primacy in space technology and to support American jobs and competitiveness.”
SIA’s membership includes US aerospace giants Boeing, Lockheed Martin Corporation and Loral Space & Communications, but none of the major satellite manufactures were able to comment on the new legislation.
