Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 2948 - Prohibiting DOD from Purchasing Any Toshiba Product for Resale in a Military Exchange Store

(House)
(Rep. Daniel (D) Virginia and 29 others)

The administration agrees that the transfer of milling technology to the Soviets by Toshiba has resulted in grave damage to Free World security. It is working closely with Japanese officials to redress this loss through cooperative efforts to regain the technological edge and to strengthen export control procedures so that such a diversion never occurs again.

The administration, however, opposes H.R. 2948 for the following reasons:

— unilateral sanctions on Toshiba will undercut our bilateral efforts with the Government of Japan to improve its technology security practices, as well as our multilateral efforts to strengthen COCOM;

— restrictions on the freedom of action of military exchanges could create a precedent for future efforts to restrict Department of Defense (DOD) buying activities;

— placing DOD in the position of enforcing and monitoring the activities of concessionaires would be burdensome, costly and ineffective; and

— singling out the military consumer to bear the full cost of sanctions against Toshiba is unfair.