Former Australian Official 'Optimistic' Congress Will Pass ITAR Revamp

After years of asking for U.S. defense export control reform, Australia is hopeful that change is finally imminent, said Arthur Sinodinos, Australia’s former ambassador to the U.S. before leaving the role earlier this year. Sinodinos, who said he helped oversee the creation of the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership, said he believes Congress will soon pass pending legislation to reduce technology sharing restrictions, and Australia is pushing for “as big an exemption as possible.”

“AUKUS for us became the Trojan horse to try and break through some of these rules and regulations,” Sinodinos said during ComDef 2023 last week. “And that is what is happening now.”

The three AUKUS nations are working to loosen the strict licensing rules in the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (see 2305240061), which have long been criticized for limiting American defense technology collaboration with close allies (see 2302170022, 2303170045 and 2303140018). Sinodinos said Australia is hoping the effort leads to “more streamlined information sharing and technological transfers” as opposed to the current requirements, which cause Australian firms to be “worried about being caught in the ITAR net.”

He specifically said he’s “very optimistic” Congress will pass legislation that could create new export authorizations for ITAR-controlled shipments to Australia and the U.K. (see 2305050063 and 2309060028). “That is a priority of the Australian government, a priority of the Australian Embassy in D.C.,” Sinodinos said. The Senate (see 2305050063 and House (see 2307270051) have both introduced bills aimed at reducing ITAR restrictions.

Sinodinos said the U.S. has been hesitant to introduce broad ITAR exemptions for Australia and the U.K. because “there was a view that if we start doing things for one or two allies, all the rest of them will want stuff as well.” U.S. officials were pressed last week about why other allies, including Canada, Japan and South Korea, aren’t included in the effort (see 2310260059).

The U.S. has said it’s limiting AUKUS to the three countries for now because the impetus for the agreement was to work with the U.K. to help deliver Australia nuclear-powered submarines. Sinodinos said Australia has taken advantage of the submarine agreement to push for broader rule changes.

“When we started to work at the embassy about this, there was no burning platform to try and get movement,” Sinodinos said. “But the burning platform, in a sense, became AUKUS.”