High-tech groups join for tech-transfer reform

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three trade groups are joining forces to try to overhaul U.S. export laws that have undercut military-related cooperation with allies, the head of one of the groups said Wednesday.

"We're going to make this a major big deal" next year, said John Douglass, president and chief executive of the Aerospace Industries Association, which represents makers of commercial, military and business aircraft plus builders of spacecraft, missiles and components.

Douglass said his group would team with the National Association of Manufacturers and the Electronic Industries Alliance to develop a common proposal for replacing the Cold War-era Export Adminstration Act and Arms Control Act.

The drive would seek to exploit a "window of political opportunity" that may have opened with the November 7 midterm elections that gave Democrats control of both chambers of Congress for the first time in 12 years, he said.

Douglass spoke at a Washington, D.C. conference on obstacles to defense trade sponsored by Rome-based Finmeccanica SpA (SIFI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), an aerospace and defense company, and hosted by the Hudson Institute, a policy research group.

The chief executives of Finmeccanica and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) each told the session that an overhaul of U.S. technology-transfer policy was overdue.

The current U.S. system "takes an excessive toll on allies' resources, patience and goodwill -- and actually risks limiting our ability to work together to develop and field the best defenses against common foes and threats," said Robert Stevens, Lockheed's chairman and chief executive.

Finmeccanica's Pier Francesco Guarguaglini said: "The result is that many important programs are delayed and sometimes jeopardized."