Where is ‘Export Control Reform’ at?

Cutting and pasting below some remarks this morning from Andrew Shapiro at the Defense Trade Advisory Group. He doesn’t give a lot of detail, other than to say ‘We’re working on it.’

Enabling Foreign Military Sales with Secure Processors

Defense contractors have been depending on the export market in order to weather the current economic crisis. It turns out their hopes have considerable justification. According to a September 9, 2009 NY Times article, 

“The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before.”

By contrast, through the early 2000s, arms sales averaged only $8-13B. According to Loren Thomsen of the Lexington Institute, “weapons could be the single biggest export item over the next ten years.”