US Likely to Meet New Deadline for AUKUS ITAR Exemption, Official Says

Although the department missed last week’s 120-day deadline, which was set by the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) enacted in December 2023, it doesn't expect a further delay, Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security Bonnie Jenkins told reporters. The department announced April 19 that it intends to finalize the exemption over the next 120 days (see 2404190040).

“I don’t want to say I guarantee, but I can say we feel pretty good based on what we’ve accomplished already that we can probably make the next 120 days,” Jenkins said.

The State Department sent a proposed rule for the ITAR exemption to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs April 9 (see 2404110006). OIRA concluded its review April 19. An industry official said last week that publication of the draft rule is expected in the coming weeks.

Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized the Biden administration April 22 for not meeting the original deadline, saying it “further delays the implementation of AUKUS. This judgment means our trade with the UK and Australia will continue to operate under the existing ITAR rules for at least the next four months."

Although AUKUS was unveiled almost three years ago, “the trade pact is still little more than an idea,” Risch said. “It is time to deliver on the promise of AUKUS. Continued failure to do so would demonstrate the administration is fundamentally unserious about competing with China.”

The U.K. government said April 19 that the AUKUS partnership has made “significant progress” toward achieving its goals, which include providing conventionally armed, nuclear-powered attack submarines to Australia and strengthening trilateral cooperation in such areas as artificial intelligence and automation, cyber, hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, electronic warfare, quantum technology and additional undersea capabilities. The ITAR exemption is supposed to reduce the licensing burdens for sharing cutting-edge defense technology.

The U.K. government said it is “pleased to say that, as the next step in this process, the U.S. will, in the next few weeks, be consulting with defense industry to ensure that implementation of the planned AUKUS exemptions realizes their full potential.” The U.K. government also said it will be "finalizing the last technical steps to benefit from the NDAA provisions" and is "confident that by the next 120-day period we will have completed all the requirements for full implementation of the ITAR exemptions."

As for a possible expansion of AUKUS, Jenkins said the partners plan to conduct consultations “this year” with countries that could join “Pillar II,” the portion of the pact that calls for greater defense technology collaboration. As announced earlier this month (see 2404090011), Japan will be the first country consulted.

“But we don’t have a timeline for Japan or any other country with which we are consulting about additional partnerships,” she said. “It is critical that we conduct a very deliberate process" and have discussions "with countries based on things that we think are important in terms of what additional partners can bring."

The existing partners have identified “collaboration opportunities” for potential new partners, and they “will take into account factors such as technological Innovation, financing, industrial capacity, ability to adequately protect sensitive data and information, and impact on promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” she said.