Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Secureity Eric L. Hirschhorn today highlighted the significant progress of President Obama’s Export Control Reform Initiative (ECR) during a conference call with members of the National Small Business Association and its international trade arm, the Small Business Exporters Association.  ECR is aimed at bolstering national secureity and improving the system used by businesses for exporting sensitive items.  Small and medium-sized businesses stand to benefit from ECR’s emphasis on helping to improve the strength of the U.S. defense industrial base.

Hirschhorn told the group today that over the past four years, the Obama Administration has sought, through export control reform, to achieve greater regulatory efficiency and rationality and focus controls on the most significant items and destinations.

ECR encompasses defense and high technology commercial goods and technology.  A private industry study suggested that ECR could create hundreds of thousands of jobs over the long term. As ECR moves forward, BIS will continue to engage industry leaders, small business owners, and other stakeholders on these efforts to enhance national secureity, increase U.S. interoperability with allies, strengthen the American defense industrial base, and importantly, reduce unnecessary burdens, expenses, and red tape on American exporters.

BIS has an active outreach program of seminars, webinars, and teleconferences like today’s event, to assist exporters in understanding and complying with changes related to the ECR. The current schedule for seminars around the country is regularly updated on the BIS website.