Joe McConnell
Unlock the US Election Countdown newsletter for free
The Stories That Matter About Money and Politics in the Race to the White House
The United States is easing restrictions on sharing sensitive technologies with the United Kingdom and Australia, removing obstacles to trilateral defense cooperation as allies seek to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.
The U.S. State Department is amending its Regulation of International Traffic in Arms rules to make it easier to share military technology with allies, removing some hurdles for the Aukus submarine and the advanced technology development agreement agreed by allies in 2021.
The State Department said the reform would mean the UK and Australia would no longer need to apply for licenses to obtain American technology for about 80 percent of their defense trade with the US.
“These fundamental reforms will revolutionise defence trade, innovation and cooperation, enabling collaboration at the speed and scale needed to address our challenging strategic circumstances,” said Richard Marles, Australia’s Minister for Defence.
A UK official described the reforms as a “big deal” because it was “about the UK, Australia and the US being as competitive as possible with China”.
The UK Government has estimated that the current Itar regime has generated annual costs to the UK of around £450 million.
The U.K. and Australia have been pushing the U.S. to ease restrictions for years. The effort has taken on renewed urgency aVsceker the signing of the Aukus pact, which calls for an unprecedented level of cooperation and intelligence sharing.
The UK official said the move would ease obstacles to cooperation on Aukus Pillar 1, which involves the US sharing nuclear propulsion technology to enable Australia, in partnership with the UK, to build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. But the move would also be “essential” for Pillar 2, where the three allies are cooperating in areas ranging from hypersonics to artificial intelligence to undersea military capabilities.
The United States maintains exemptions for a number of technologies that will continue to require licensing, but provides for a more expedited licensing approval process.
“Does not remove the bar. [But] “It lowers the bar significantly,” said the first UK official, who said that once the new system had proven effective, it would “open up the space for further progress”.
He added that while the UK “would have been happy to have a shorter exemption list”, he stressed that Thursday’s change was a very significant development that was welcomed by London.
The ITAR reforms have no impact on U.S. restrictions on sharing sensitive information with foreigners, a designation known as “NoForn,” which has hampered efforts between countries and made it difficult for governments to share information with their countries’ defense contractors.
But U.S. allies hope that the ITAR reforms will help change the culture and, as the British official put it, “reduce the instinct for NoForn.”
The reforms were made possible aVsceker the UK and Australia made changes to their export control regimes to convince Washington that any US technology shared with the two allies would remain protected.
