[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 40 (Monday, October 9, 1995)]
[Pages 1783-1784]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Reform of Computer Export Controls

October 6, 1995

    Today I am pleased to announce a major reform of our computer export 
controls that will adjust to the global spread of technology while 
preserving our vital national security interests.
    Effective export controls are a critical part of national security, 
especially a strong nonproliferation policy. Our control regulations 
must focus principally on exports that have significant national 
security applications and which are not so widely available in open 
commerce that controls are ineffective.
    When I came into office, virtually all computers more powerful than 
a basic desktop required an export license from the Government, even 
though many of these machines could be purchased in electronics stores 
from Hong Kong to Frankfurt as well as in cities across America. Both 
the U.S. Government and American exporters spent millions of dollars and 
thousands of hours implementing and complying with a tangled web of 
export control regulations.
    Two years ago, to bring our export control system into line with new 
developments in computer technology and the changing nature of the 
threats to our national security, I relieved billions of dollars worth 
of exports from outdated and unnecessary controls and instructed my 
administration thoroughly and periodically to review the controls on 
computer exports. The purpose of this review was to determine how 
changes in computer technology and its military applications should 
affect our export control regulations.
    Now, in the wake of a careful reevaluation by the Department of 
Defense, I have instructed my administration to update our controls to 
ensure that computers that could have a significant military impact on 
U.S. and allied security interests remain carefully controlled, while 
controls that are unnecessary or ineffective are eliminated.
    Specifically, I have decided to eliminate controls on the export of 
all computers to countries in North America, most of Europe, and parts 
of Asia. For a number of other countries, including many in Latin 
America and Central and Eastern Europe, we will ease but not eliminate 
computer export controls. For the former Soviet Union, China, and a 
number of other countries, we will focus our controls on computers 
intended for military end uses or users, while easing them on the export 
of computers to civilian customers. Finally, we will continue to deny 
computer technology to terrorist countries around the world.
    This decision will relieve U.S. computer manufacturers of 
unnecessary and ineffective regulations which often have tied their 
hands while foreign competitors won major contracts or built their own 
systems. It will help preserve the strength of the U.S. computer 
industry, which also is key to our national security. It is good for 
U.S. workers and U.S. business.
    This decision will benefit our national security in a number of 
other ways. Trying to regulate the export of computers that are 
increasingly available in markets abroad is a recipe for an ineffective 
nonproliferation policy. It imposes serious regulatory burdens without 
improving our national security and diverts resources from the pursuit 
of other important nonproliferation objectives.
    Today's action will strengthen our nonproliferation policy by 
targeting our export control resources on those areas where they can 
make a difference. It will complement

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our work in the New Forum, the multilateral regime we are forming to 
control arms and sensitive dual-use technologies, where we will work 
with our partners to encourage development of multilateral transparency 
and controls on computers consistent with our national controls. It will 
reinforce other steps we have taken in this administration to achieve 
concrete goals--such as the indefinite extension of the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty, denuclearizaton of Ukraine, stopping the North 
Korean nuclear weapons program, and a negotiation of a comprehensive 
test ban--in our efforts to combat proliferation.