国际英语新闻：Obama announces first steps toward implementation of new U.S. export control system

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday announced the administration had released a series of regulations and requests for comments as part of the implementation of the new U.S. export control system and was seeking public comments, a move to further support U.S. firms' export efforts.

The U.S. export control reform initiative was announced in August 2009, when the President directed a broad-based review of the current U.S. export control system to ensure that the system, designed for a bipolar world of the Cold War era, was updated to address the threats facing the nation currently and the changing economic and technological scenarios.

"We need fundamental reform in all four areas of our current system, in what we control, how we control it, how we enforce those controls, and how we manage our controls," Obama said at the end of the review in August 2010.

Obama Thursday held a meeting of the President's Export Council at the White House and discussed progress made on the U.S. set goal of doubling exports within five years and supporting millions of new American jobs.

The White House said in a Thursday statement that in publishing documents including a draft rule setting out the criteria and procedures to be used in determining whether a product is subject to export controls, the government was seeking public comment within 60 days before the rules are finalized and the control lists are completed.

"For the first time, U.S. exporters can download a single electronic list of the literally thousands of names maintained across the U.S. government for whom there is an export control restriction or special requirement. This will provide significant time-saving and compliance benefits, particularly to small businesses," according to the statement.

The Obama administration announced in March to re-launch the President's Export Council to serve as the principal national advisory committee on international trade in a bid to bolster the economic recovery.