US allows sale of faster computers to India

US allows sale of faster computers to India
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

JAN 11: The United States has allowed the sale of faster computers to India and other developing nations in Southeast Asia and Africa without prior review and decided to ease the restrictions which proved ineffective in view of rapid progress of technology.

"The Clinton administration has permitted the sale of faster computers to the so-called `Tier 3' countries because these computers are so widely available that efforts to restrict their sale out of proliferation concerns is useless," a White House release said on Thursday. The Tier 3 countries include India, Pakistan, China, Vietnam, the former Soviet Union, most Middle East countries and central Europe.

However, the release said, controls on software will continue to curb proliferation. "As a precaution against proliferation, enhanced controls will be clamped on critical applications software," it said. "The President has directed agencies to undertake a six-month effort to increase the awareness within industry and the government of the already strong export controls that exist on software for national security applications and to identify and invest in additional measures for the protection of critical national software codes."

The administration has decided that the rapid progress of technology has made limits on the speed of computers ineffective in deciding what can be exported. At present computers with speeds of 28,000 theoretical operations per second (MTOPS) are allowed to be sold to these countries. These will be raised to 85,000 MTOPS. Apart from the Tier 3 countries, developing nations in Africa, Central and South America, Slovenia and Lithuania, will benefit from the change and will move to 'tier 1' status, joining American allies in not requiring governmental review before export.

There will be no change for countries that support terrorism, including Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan and Syria. The United States maintains a virtual embargo on technology exports to those nations. Information technology industry leaders welcomed the change.

"The administration has made a major step forward in realising that in a globally competitive environment, old restrictions on exports were really harmful to the US IT industry," said Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America.

Lou Gerstner, chairman and chief executive of IBM Corp. and co-chairman of the computer coalition for responsible exports, applauded the administration's ability "to keep governmental regulations in line with the rapid pace of technological change in our dynamic industry."