INDIA & U.S.

ISRO's shopping options

R. RAMACHANDRAN

THERE is a flip side to the relaxation in the export control policy with regard to the seven Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) entities still on the post-Pokhran Entities List (E.L.). Following the changed policy, there is no licence requirement for the export of `EAR99' and `XX999' goods. These are low-level goods controlled by the United States Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Though these do not normally require a licence, until the present modification, entities on the E.L. required a licence for all EAR-controlled goods, including EAR99 items. So, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has a pretty good data on ISRO's imports of dual-use items since the sanctions were slapped in 1998.

According to DOC, licence applications for EAR99 items for ISRO (over 200 per year) constitute as much as 75-80 per cent of all dual-use item applications for the organisation. Further, ISRO's applications for EAR99 items constitute a quarter of all export licence applications for the entire country. But for the sanctions, this data would not have been available. This immediately raises the question what exactly are these low-level items to acquire which ISRO has to depend on the U.S. to such an extent despite the sanctions and the complex process of licence approval.

"Items subject to the EAR" include all items - including trivial items such as clips, pins, toilet paper and so on - in the U.S., whether produced within the U.S. or in the U.S. Foreign Trade Zone or in transit through the U.S.; those of U.S. origin wherever located; those with U.S. origin parts and components and technology (including software) integrated as foreign products; that are foreign-made direct products of U.S. technology or software and those produced by any plant or a major part thereof located outside the U.S. which is a direct product of U.S. technology or software, except for those items exclusively controlled by other U.S. agencies such as the Department of State, Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and so on.

A part of all these goods that are subject to the EAR, which are high technology dual-use items, are included in the Commerce Control List (CCL). Now EAR99 items are defined by exclusion: all items subject to the EAR that are not listed in the CCL are designated as EAR99 items. So the category EAR99 is a basket of assorted low-level goods that would include low-tech dual-use items as well as mundane items like pins, clips, toothbrush and so on. Three-fourths of items imported by ISRO from the U.S. belong to this basket - items that can be procured from various sources, including Indian. For an organisation that is building satellites and launch vehicles, why this extreme dependence on imports for low-level goods?

According to one ISRO source, it is mainly because of hundreds of electronic chips that go into satellite and launch vehicle systems and materials. However, this alone cannot explain such a large volume of EAR99 items. Moreover, are not there other external and domestic sources for the same? "Certainly," observed another source. "Only ISRO has not bothered to do the exercise of identifying alternative sources for these simple items. Hangover from the past, when it could just import even trivial things from the U.S., continues," the source added.

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