The U.S. departments of Commerce and State must clarify which of them has jurisdiction over certain items regulated by the Missile Technology Control Regime, said a General Accounting Office report released yesterday.  The MTCR is an export control arrangement of more than 30 nations.

Descriptions of many MTCR items are the same on the Commerce Control List and on the State Department’s Munitions List, the report said.  In other cases, however, one department claims jurisdiction over an item that does not explicitly appear on its list, but does appear on the list of the other department, according to the GAO. More than 25 percent of the items are under dispute.

One factor that contributes to the confusion is that the two departments disagree on how to decide which MTCR items are regulated by which department.  Commerce officials have said an item that appears on both lists should be regulated by the State Department “only if it meets the criteria of being specifically designed or modified for a military application,” according to the report.  State officials said, however, that the only criteria that should be used to determine whether it has control over an item is whether the item appears on its munitions list.

The two departments have also been unable to work together on MTCR items in general.  The State office responsible for the Munitions List has not participated in consultations with Commerce, and State has not updated the MTCR section of its export control list for several years, according to the report. 

The confusion could subject the same MTCR items to different export restrictions, which “could affect U.S. national interests,” the report said.  One example given in the report is that by law, State cannot allow items it controls to be exported to China, while the same restrictions do not apply to Commerce.  The confusion also makes it difficult for exporters to know which department to apply to for a license.

The report recommends that the two departments resolve their lines of control and correct regulations accordingly.  “Although it believes jurisdiction for regime items is generally clear, [Commerce] supports reviewing the export control lists to provide additional clarity,” the report said.  In State’s comments, it “agreed to update its regulations and work with the Commerce Department to eliminate areas of overlap” (GAO report, October 2001).

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