US Wants to Reduce ITAR Controls for Other Countries After Australia, UK, Official Says

A senior State Department official this week said the U.S. is planning to eventually include other nations in an ongoing effort to reduce burdensome defense export control requirements for Australia and the U.K. In perhaps the strongest endorsement yet by a U.S. official of the concept, Bonnie Jenkins, undersecretary for arms control and international security, said the U.S. wants to involve other nations after it works through its current process under the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership.

“We hope to get to a point -- and we will, I assume, get to a point -- where we can also work with other countries,” Jenkins said during a Nov. 27 event hosted by the Atlantic Council. She said the administration “will decide later” who the countries will be and what criteria they will need to meet to benefit from relaxed restrictions under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, “but that is something that is a possibility.”

Jenkins’ comments came about a month after American, Australian and British officials were pressed by industry representatives and foreign governments during a defense industry conference about why they haven’t sought to include other close allies in the AUKUS effort, which is expected to create a pathway for the three countries to more easily share controlled defense technology (see 2310260059). At the time, officials from the three nations said the process was proving difficult and that they needed to complete work among themselves before involving others.

Speaking this week, Jenkins said pillar two of AUKUS, which is meant to improve collaboration between the three nations across a range of critical technologies, “is something that we do see eventually as something that can involve other countries." But first, the U.S. wants to "make sure that we have a good solid basis among the three countries in terms of the emerging technologies.”

She also said the countries have faced “challenges,” adding that they are still working with Congress on legislation that could expedite U.S. defense exports within the group (see 2309060028). Under that bill, Australia and the U.K. would need to meet a provision that requires the State Department to certify both countries have export control regimes “comparable” to that of the U.S. (see 2309270007 and 2307140019).

“There's a lot of discussion happening on the Hill right now,” Jenkins said, but she added that it helps that there’s a “lot of energy, there's a lot of interest from” all three countries to “make this happen,” specifically from Australia. The country earlier this month unveiled proposed reforms to its export control requirements and penalties as it works to harmonize its defense trade regulations with the U.S. (see 2311130057).

“There will certainly be challenges and some reality checks will come along the way. We've already started to face reality checks in figuring out how we're going to deal with these things,” she said. “But the momentum is there, the interest is there,” and “we have a lot of talks going on on the Hill right now to push it forward.”

Asked specifically about how the U.S. is balancing its push to reduce ITAR restrictions while also strictly enforcing export controls for sensitive technologies destined to China, Jenkins said the administration is “thinking about that a lot.” She said she feels “confident” that three countries can reach a place where they can trade sensitive technologies while also making sure that technology “doesn't get in the hands of countries” subject to strict guardrails.

“I can say that that's something that we think about all the time,” she said, “and it’s a part of the discussions that we are having right now with our colleagues in Australia and U.K. and on the Hill.”