BIS Should Update Infrared Technology Export Controls, Industry Official Says
The Bureau of Industry and Security should update its export controls surrounding infrared technologies to allow U.S. companies to better compete with foreign firms, said Mike Muench, CEO of Seek Thermal, a thermal imaging company. Muench, speaking during a Jan. 25 meeting of the Commerce Department’s Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee, said BIS hasn’t “significantly” updated its infrared technology controls since 2005, when the infrared sector was dramatically different. “That was several generations ago, relatively speaking, in the technology space,” Muench said. “We really believe it's time for us to address some of these changes to allow U.S. firms to be more competitive.”
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Exporters of thermal imaging cameras are frequently subject to strict end-user monitoring and due diligence requirements, Muench said, which can sometimes be challenging to meet. “We’re required to provide all the end-user monitoring of where our systems go, but so are the people that we sell to,” Muench said. He also said BIS’s military end-user rules add additional restrictions to their products, especially because the rules sometimes can restrict exports of products that firms specifically design for commercial uses. He said certain thermal imaging cameras designed for firefighters, for example, could be subject to license restrictions if the product was set to be exported to a firefighting group on a foreign military base. A BIS spokesperson didn’t comment.
Muench also said he is concerned that thermal imaging manufacturing could soon be dominated by China and South Korea, similar to the semiconductor sector. “Since fundamentally thermal imaging is a semiconductor-based technology, there's no reason to believe that those same trends won't continue in the thermal imaging space as well,” he said.