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Technology Stocks : Loral Space & Communications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (3979)	7/10/1998 2:25:00 AM
From: brian h	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10852

Jlallen and all, A changing tide!? Cochran Opposes Ban on US-China Satellite Launches By Tony Capaccio at Bloomberg News 09-JUL-98 The US Senate shouldn't go along with a measure passed by the US House that prohibits US industry from using Chinese rockets to launch commercial communications satellites, said a key senator in the debate. "I think that's probably inappropriate as a reaction to this situation," said Senator Thad Cochran, a Republican from Mississippi who chairs a subcommittee reviewing allegations of inappropriate technology transfer to China. "We don't have evidence that in every instance we have a transfer of technology that threatens our security," Cochran said in an interview after a hearing examining the licensing process to safeguard US technology. Based on what he has learned to date, "I would not vote for an amendment that would ban all satellite exports to China," said Cochran, who hasn't previously made known his views on the subject, said analysts and congressional aides. Lockheed Martin Corp., Hughes Space & Communications Co., and Loral Space & Communications Ltd. could lose thousands of jobs and billions of dollars if the ban on US satellite sales to China becomes law, industry officials have said. Cochran carries some weight on the issue because he chairs the Senate Governmental Affairs international security subcommittee. The panel has been conducting hearings into the adequacy of satellite export control administered by the Commerce Department. Cochran has criticized the administration's review process. Cochran, a member of the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee, also could blunt any attempt to modify the fiscal 1999 defense bill when the Senate votes on the $251 billion measure by next week. The House voted 364-54 in May as part of its fiscal 1999 defense bill to ban future US satellite sales and launches on Chinese rockets. The Senate didn't put such a provision in its defense bill. The issue is being worked out in a conference between House and Senate members. Two special congressional panels also have begun to examine the subject of China technology transfer. Instead of an outright ban, Cochran said he favors tightening the process in place between the State, Defense, and Commerce departments for licensing China satellite launches. "I think what we have is a body of facts on which to improve the process by which the security is safeguarded in the licensing of satellites to China," he said. "Senator Cochran would appear to be moving in the direction we hope the Senate would once facts, rather than allegations, become public," said Joel Johnson, vice president for international operations of the Aerospace Industries Association. The AIA has condemned the House vote and has urged the Senate to overturn the language. China is one of the prime commercial satellite markets for US companies in Asia, a region that could order an estimated $8.3 billion in US satellites through 2003, industry officials said. Those projects will employ an estimated 16,000 people in the US during the next five years - up from about $1.7 billion in pending orders and 8,000 employees today. The states that would be hardest hit by an export ban could be California, Arizona, Virginia and Colorado, they said. Brian H.