Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles speaks in November 2023 during a press conference on the tri-lateral AUKUS partnership in Derby, UK. Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images
US, UK, Australia loosen mutual export controls
New rules may mark a “generational-level change” in allies’ industrial and technological collaboration.
Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States are exempting each other from key export controls, a bid to streamline industrial collaboration under their three-year-old AUKUS tech-sharing agreement, officials said Thursday.
“Together, our respective national exemptions remove the licencing requirements for most controlled goods, technologies and services exported, re-exported or transferred to, or within, AUKUS nations,” the Australian government said in a statement. “This will be critical in driving scientific and technological collaboration, including under AUKUS Pillar II Advanced Capabilities,” which focuses on emerging technologies.
The Australians said the changes will allow license-free trade of large new swaths of U.S. exports to their country: 70 percent of those subject to International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR, and 80 percent of the trade subject to Export Administration Regulations.
The changes will also eliminate the need for some 900 export-control permits affecting trade from Australia to the United States and 200 defense-specific export permits from the U.K. to Australia, covering $129 million a year.
“These critical reforms will revolutionise defence trade, innovation and cooperation, enabling collaboration at the speed and scale required to meet our challenging strategic circumstances,” Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said in the statement.
In a separate statement, the UK government said that the changes will cover “up to £500 million of UK defence exports each year, and billions of dollars of trade across all three nations, helping boost our shared economic growth.”
UK Defence Secretary John Healey said in the statement, “This is a breakthrough that will allow our three nations to deepen our collaboration on defence technology and trade. Our new government will reinforce the UK’s role in AUKUS to boost Britain’s military capabilities and economic growth.”
Deborah Cheverton of the Atlantic Council and other defense observers have long pointed to ITAR restrictions as big barriers to AUKUS meeting its full potential.
“The current legislative and regulatory regimes are not structured to support the pace or flexibility that modern technology and the strategic competition with China demands,” Cheverton and John T. Watts wrote in November. “This is particularly clear when it comes to the wider cooperation envisaged in AUKUS for critical technologies, including those dealing with artificial intelligence, autonomy, cybersecurity, and electronic warfare.”
A State Department official told Defense One on Thursday that the ITAR exemptions will go into effect on Sept. 1.There will also be a 90-day comment period, beginning on Aug. 20, to get feedback from industry, research communities, and academic institutions.
“Together with our partners, we are taking significant steps to deepen the integration of our defense industrial bases to enhance our shared competitive military edge and foster the development of advanced capabilities needed for integrated deterrence. By pooling our strengths, we are transforming our security cooperation in this region,” the officials said.
A former senior defense official told Defense One that “the creation of license-free defense trade between the AUKUS partners demonstrates the transformational success of AUKUS Pillar 2 in reshaping the potential for defense industrial base collaboration. This is actual generational-level change."