More news from the WSJ, and I can't evaluate it. IMO, it simply opens Russian rockets and technology to bidding. Comment...?
July 14, 1999
White House Agrees to Boost Number
Of U.S. Satellite Launches by Russia
By HELENE COOPER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton agreed to increase the number of U.S.
commercial-satellite launches using Russian rockets in Kazakstan, indicating he is
satisfied Moscow is taking steps to halt transfers of nuclear and missile technology
to Iran.
Administration officials say that in the past month, Russian authorities have set up
internal compliance units to monitor technology leaks. Moscow has started an
export-control policy and Russian legislators have passed an export-control law to
crack down further on sales of weapons-technology to Iran and other suspect
customers.
As a reward for all this, the U.S. will boost the number of satellite launches on
Russian rockets from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan to 20 from 16. If
Russia continues to make progress on nonproliferation, administration officials said,
the U.S. might again increase the number of satellite launches next year.
U.S. companies still will need federal approval to loft satellites using Russian
rockets. Nevertheless, the pact is a boon for U.S. space companies, including
Lockheed Martin Corp., Loral Space & Communications Ltd. and Hughes
Electronics Corp., a unit of General Motors Corp.
Still, House International Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman of New
York plans to move forward with separate legislation to penalize Russia for
missile-technology proliferation. With the "decision to let Russia off the hook again,
it's all the more important" to move ahead with the legislation, Mr. Gilman said.
The White House's move is a "good first step," Lockheed spokesman James Fetig
said. "We welcome this action, but we'd like to see the quota lifted entirely. There
will continue to be uncertainty as to the long-term viability of this joint venture as
long as this quota exists."
The administration has been under enormous political pressure during the past year
following earlier U.S. satellite launches in China, where, it was alleged, Beijing
acquired sensitive U.S. technology. A six-month congressional investigation found
the actions of several U.S. commercial-satellite companies had harmed U.S. national
security.
Lockheed wasn't one of the companies. Nonetheless, Mr. Fetig said Khrunichev
Space Center and RSC Energia, "our Russian partners, have met all the conditions of
the Launch Trade Agreement and have implemented stringent internal export control
safeguards and are not engaged in proliferation."
With a shortage of launch capacity in the U.S., Lockheed has been relying on
Russian rockets to help it boost its share of a booming world-wide market. Russian
fees from the additional launches are expected to total between $200 million and $400
million.
Separately, the U.S. finally signed an agreement limiting Russian shipments of steel
to the U.S. over a five-year period, Commerce Secretary William Daley announced.
In return, the U.S. won't impose punitive antidumping duties on Russian steel
shipments, which increased last year amid a flood of cheap steel imports.
The steel pact sets annual quotas for Russian steel shipments, reducing imports for
all Russian steel by 64% this year compared with 1998. The quotas will gradually
rise, reaching 725,000 metric tons of hot-rolled steel in 2003. Administration officials
said that still would represent an 80% reduction from the 1998 level of imports of
Russian hot-rolled steel.
The administration had infuriated the U.S. steel industry by threatening to veto a bill
in Congress that would have further limited steel imports. Mr. Daley said the pact
delivers "on the administration's commitment to guarantee that surging imports do
not threaten the livelihoods of communities and workers around the nation."
fred |
