For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 2, 2002
President Changes Export Controls on Computers
Statement by the Deputy Press Secretary
Changes to U.S. Dual-Use Export Controls
President Bush today announced changes to the Administration's export
controls on computers and microprocessors. These changes
will advance the President's goal of updating the U.S. export control
system so that it protects U.S. national security, and at the same
time, allows America's high tech companies to innovate and successfully
compete in today's marketplace.
Specifically, the United States will raise the level above which it
requires individual licenses for computer exports to Tier 3 countries
(which include Russia, Israel, India, Pakistan, and China) from the
current level of 85,000 Millions of Theoretical Operations
Per Second (MTOPS) to 190,000 MTOPS. Latvia will be moved
from Tier 3 to the group of countries for which no prior review is
required for computer exports. The President has notified
Congress of these changes, as required by law. These changes
require a 60- and 120-day Congressional notification
period. The United States also will raise the level at which
it requires individual licenses for exports to many destinations of
general purpose microprocessors from 6,500 MTOPS to 12,000
MTOPS. The new computer and microprocessor levels will
become effective when published by the Department of Commerce in the
Federal Register.
These reforms are needed due to the rapid rate of technological
change in the computer industry. Single microprocessors
available today by mail order and the Internet perform at more than
twenty-five times the speed of supercomputers built in the early
1990s. Computer performance that once cost millions of
dollars is now available in inexpensive systems used in homes, schools
and businesses, and made by companies around the world.
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