UK 'Absolutely' Committed to Harmonizing Defense Export Controls With US, Official Says

LONDON -- The U.K. is having “deep” conversations with the U.S. about aligning the two countries’ defense export regulations in an effort to slash technology sharing restrictions as part of the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) agreement, said Rosemary Pratt, director of the U.K.’s Export Control Joint Unit. Pratt said she believes the U.K. eventually will update its controls enough to benefit from a new potential defense-related license exemption being considered by Congress.

Pratt, speaking during a Sept. 27 defense industry conference hosted by SAE Media, said she just returned from the U.S., where she spoke with the State Department about the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. She also spoke with congressional staffers about a bill, advanced by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this year, that would create a new exemption for Australia and the U.K. as long as the State Department certifies both countries have export control regimes “comparable” to that of the U.S. (see 2307140019).

Some industry officials have said they aren't sure what exact steps the U.K. needs to take to meet the comparability standard (see 2307050054). Pratt didn't discuss the details of the private talks between the countries but said they have been “very clear that we will end up where our systems are comparable,” calling the effort a “generational, big, ambitious, collaboration." To "facilitate that, we need to take away a lot of friction and red tape that has been in the processing of moving items between those countries," she said.

Pratt’s comments came just weeks after Jessica Lewis, who leads the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, said she’s “very confident” both the U.K. and Australia will soon update their export control regulations to benefit from the new exemption (see 2309060028). Pratt said the sides are “in the midst of, I would say, deep, deep technical trilateral discussions” on “how we can ensure that collectively our systems are absolutely comparable,” including on issues surrounding intangible technology transfers.

She called those transfers a challenge “we all share," adding that the three countries are focusing on preventing "the leakage of sensitive technologies" that you can't physically export, such as code. "We recognize, all of us, that that is quite tough," Pratt said. "It's very easy when things are in big boxes that you can stop at the border, but life is not like that."

But she said there is "absolutely profound commitment" to harmonizing the controls. "This is something really exciting. This is something really important,” Pratt said. “We are all really committed to it and we're going to have to be imaginative and forward thinking to make it happen.”