U.S. Relaxes Export Curbs on Computers

WASHINGTON — The Bush Administration, in another move aimed at improving economic relations with the Soviet Bloc, Tuesday relaxed controls on the export of popular desktop personal computers to the Soviet Union and other Communist countries.

In a reversal of the policy followed by the Ronald Reagan Administration, Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher announced that the United States would lift requirements that U.S. manufacturers obtain special licenses to export these products to non-Communist countries and would recommend that international restrictions on sales to Soviet Bloc nations, including the Soviet Union, be dropped as well.

Seen as Formality

The latter move is expected to be only a formality. The restrictions, maintained by the 17-nation Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Exports, known informally as CoCom, were imposed initially at the United States’ request. Most other Western governments do not require such licenses on their own.

The change, granted on grounds that Soviet Bloc buyers already can purchase such “AT-compatible” computers in 11 other countries, is considered to be mainly a symbolic move. The AT-compatible desktop models are in the middle range of technology and are not regarded as particularly sensitive from a national security point of view.

Nevertheless, the announcement, which came on the heels of President Bush’s trip to Poland and Hungary last week, marked another highly visible step in the Administration’s continuing efforts to eliminate as many restrictions as possible on trade with the Soviet Union and other East Bloc nations to help encourage economic and political reforms.

Mosbacher said in a statement that the relaxation of restrictions would be “consistent with the spirit of the President’s initiatives” toward Soviet Bloc reform. “We are creating new opportunities for U.S. manufacturers to sell more widely abroad,” he added.

The decision followed weeks of debate between hard-liners and moderates in the Administration over how risky such a step is. Although the technology involved is not considered sensitive in the West, the computers are far more sophisticated than those generally available in the Soviet Union and allied countries.

70 Major Vendors

The desktop computers affected by Tuesday’s action include the International Business Machines Co.’s IBM PS-2 and the lower end of the MacIntosh-Plus, made by Apple Computer Inc. The computers are sold by approximately 70 major vendors.

Mosbacher said Tuesday that eliminating licensing requirements and other restrictions from such middle-range computers would enable Commerce Department enforcement officials “to focus and maintain export restrictions on those items that are truly strategic and that we can control effectively.”

Administration officials pointed out that such housecleaning efforts were a major goal of the 1979 Export Administration Act, which effectively authorized the department to scrap restrictions on high-technology products that were readily available in other countries.

U.S. manufacturers had complained that they were being unduly penalized by the more stringent rules. The investigation that led to Tuesday’s decision to relax the restrictions was begun in January, 1988, at the request of the U.S. computer industry, Mosbacher said.

In announcing the decision, Mosbacher sought to link the move to Bush’s recent trip to Poland and Hungary, asserting that he had “paved the way for expanding trade in areas that improve prospects for prosperity.” He added that lifting controls, as the Administration did Tuesday, is “one way to meet this objective.” And he asserted that it could be accomplished “without harming America’s national security.”

Commerce Department figures show that 6 million such computers were sold worldwide last year, 2.7 million of the transactions outside the United States. Last year, U.S. companies alone exported more than $1-billion worth of personal computers.

It was not immediately clear how much Tuesday’s decision ultimately would increase sales of AT-compatible computers to the Soviet Union and Soviet Bloc countries.

Although industry groups generally hailed Mosbacher’s announcement, some manufacturers indicated that they may be reluctant to sell to these countries unless their governments can come up with hard currency. The currencies of Communist Bloc countries generally are not directly convertible into dollars.

Basic Computations

Even so, U.S. officials said that the move would increase by tenfold the speed capability of the computer-power now available in Soviet Bloc countries. In the United States, AT-compatible computers are used primarily for word-processing and basic financial computations in offices and homes.

The Reagan Administration contended that selling AT-compatible technology to the Soviet Bloc would provide Moscow with technology that ultimately it could apply to military use.

Under pressure from the United States, other Western nations reluctantly agreed not to export the products they purchased from America to the Soviet Bloc. Bush said during last year’s presidential campaign that he would be “wary” of relaxing such rules.

In the months since then, however, the Bush Administration has softened its attitude toward the Soviet reform effort, with Bush telling last weekend’s seven-nation economic summit in Paris that he is convinced that Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev is sincere in wanting to expand ties to the West.

With most of Europe already increasing trade relations with the Soviet Bloc, U.S. corporations have complained that they have been losing sales of such computer products to West German and Japanese firms.

There was no immediate indication how long it might take for CoCom, a semi-secret organization that is based in Paris, to consider the U.S. request. However, officials said that, considering the pressure in Western Europe for relaxing restrictions to the Soviet Bloc, the application could be processed within a few months.