US computer export reforms to benefit India

New York, July 3: The United States President Bill Clinton has announced reforms in the administration8217;s export controls on high-performance computers HPC and semi-conductors, a change that will benefit civilian and military end-users in India and Pakistan. Even though India is listed among countries that present the quot;greatest riskquot; in terms of national security because of its nuclear programme and the dual-use technology that these computers present, the President and his advisers believe barring such technology would only give an advantage to competitors from other countries.The administration raised the licensing threshold of high-performance computers and semi-conductors to so-called quot;Tier twoquot; and quot;Tier threequot; countries. For quot;Tier 3quot; countries, among which India and Pakistan are listed, and quot;which present the greatest risk from a national security viewpoint, the administration will continue its policy of maintaining a lower threshold for military end-users than civilian end-users,quot; the President saidin a statement. But the thresholds will be raised. Clinton said he was raising the thresholds because the existing controls quot;would hurt US exports without benefiting our national security and the new policies will strengthen America8217;s high-tech competitiveness, while maintaining controls that are needed to maintain national security.quot; These reforms are needed because of the extraordinarily rapid rate of technological change in the computer industry, US President Clinton pointed out.