Remarks at the Roll-Out of D-Trade: the new Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Directorate of Defense Trade Control electronic licensing system

DISAM Journal, Winter, 2003 by Colin L. Powell

[The following are excerpts of remarks presented to the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Directorate of Defense Trade Control (PM/DDTC) Conference Room-H-1204 SA-1 (Columbia Plaza), Washington, D.C., February 18, 2004.]

>From the outset of this Administration, we have talked about making licensing faster, simpler and more "user-friendly," a familiar phrase. This is going to get us there. If we could say yes to every application, you would not need an Office of Defense Trade Licensing. So what this will really do is let us say yes or no in a more timely and effective manner.

Now to get to this day and to get this capability, it was no small accomplishment. I just want to take a moment and thank a few people. There is a lot of credit to go around. There are a number of companies, I believe eighteen companies, large and small, participated in our pilot project last year for six months. The Defense Trade Advisory Group, which is our federal advisory panel, to program management, has been quite helpful. The Society for International Affairs (SIA) is helping us to get the word out so that people can be trained on how to use the system. Our contractor, Northrup Grumman has been quite helpful.

D-Trade is the first entirely paperless, most user-friendly and security-sensitive defense technology export licensing system ever created. Twenty years ago, in the Pentagon, we remember how things used to be and how long it took to get something through the process. And we are pleased no longer to be at that end of the system, but to be at this end of the system, not that we have any regrets about our service in the Pentagon many years ago, but to be at this end of the system and to help pull things through more quickly, more efficiently, is, frankly, a great pleasure to participate in such an activity.

D-Trade is important because it is one of many moving parts within the US national security system. And all the parts matter because every part relates, obviously, to the whole. D-Trade is also part of the President's management agenda, which aims to advance effective government through e-government. This initiative is dear to my heart. One of my priorities here at the Department of State, as Assistant Secretary Lincoln Bloomfield has noted earlier, was to make sure that we are in 21st century time and movement. We last week got rid of or at least I got a certificate certifying that we got rid of it I was not there when they burned it. But we got rid of the last Wang computer in the Department of State, believe it or not. When they told me that, I said, "When did we get rid of the last Wang computer in the Department of State?" And it was only last November. But it shows you how far we have come over the last three years, to the point where we have broadband capability throughout the Department of State, and with that broadband capability we have been able to put 44,250-odd computers at stations all around the world, to speed things up to but not just to speed things up, but to use this new technology to change the way we do business. If it is a matter of speeding up old processes, or if it is a matter of doing old business in a faster way, that is not enough. We have to change the way in which we do business, and that is certainly what we are planning to do with D-Trade.

To protect the American people, our allies and our friends, our armed forces need and they have the best technologies available. A crucial part of national security, however, is insuring that those who wish us ill do not possess those same technologies. Overseeing the defense trade is a big part of how we gain that insurance, but it is a task that is becoming harder and more complex by the day. It is harder than ever to distinguish between technologies that have military applications and those that do not. It is harder than ever to know which subcomponents within complicated machines can be reverse-engineered for nefarious purposes. In 2003, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls adjudicated almost 57,000 cases for more than 4,300 registrants concerning trade that was worth more than $95 billion. That is big business.

These days, when the crossing of trend lines between military technologies and terrorism poses such a major threat to our security, we can not afford a high error rate. We can not afford an error rate at all, if it can be avoided, in controlling defense trade. D-Trade harnesses information technology to freeze our error rate down as close to absolute zero as is possible, to keep US weapons and military technology away from our enemies. At the same time, D-Trade will help us get selected technologies into the hands of allies and friends. And it will help make our defense industry more efficient in providing our armed forces with the weapons and with the tools they need to be successful on the battlefield. A smarter and faster licensing process is important to our allies and to US business, its workers, communities and shareholders alike. Indeed, we would not be here today without industry's help in making D-Trade user-friendly. And only continued industry support can make D-Trade fully effective because the process has to start with the applicant. But we are confident of that support because D-Trade works and it is in the interest of industry to work with us.