A round-up on export controls, with business groups generally pleased.

White House, Aug. 30, “President Obama Lays the Foundation for a New Export Control System To Strengthen National Security and the Competitiveness of Key U.S. Manufacturing and Technology Sectors“:

These changes – in what we control, how we control it, how we enforce those controls and how we manage our controls – will help strengthen our national security by focusing our efforts on controlling the most critical products and technologies and by enhancing the competitiveness of key U.S. manufacturing and technology sectors…. 

[The] current export control system is overly complicated, contains too many redundancies, and, in trying to protect too much, diminishes our ability to focus our efforts on the most critical national security priorities. 

National Association of Manufacturers, statement by NAM President John Engler,  Aug. 31, “Manufacturers Support Efforts to Modernize Export Controls“: 

We are pleased the Administration has taken an important step forward to fix our outdated Cold War-era export control system that puts manufacturers at a disadvantage and, according to the Quadrennial Defense Review, harms our national security.

Aerospace Industries Association, “AIA Supports Latest White House Export Control Initiatives“:

“We are very pleased by the progress the administration is making in reviewing the U.S. Munitions List,” said AIA President and CEO Marion C. Blakey. “The restructured list shows great promise in assigning the appropriate level of protection to technology exports across all levels of risk.”

In particular, the completed review of Category VII of the USML – Tanks and Military Vehicles – shows that about 74 percent of the 12,000 items licensed last year could have been safely processed under the less restrictive Commerce Control List. This indicates substantial potential savings in time and compliance costs to U.S. exporters in the future, with enormous benefits for our military and closest allies.

More…

• Department of Commerce, Aug. 30, “Secretary Locke Discusses Export Control Reform at 23rd Annual Bureau of Industry and Security Update Conference“
• Defense News, Aug. 30, “Revised U.S. Export Rules May Ease Overseas Sales“
• Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 30, “Obama to loosen export controls: Will it help economy or hurt security?“
• Washington Post, Aug. 31, “Obama poised to loosen rules on export of technology“

When business calls for the federal government to show restraint on taxes and regulation, that is not a call for inaction.

In its weekly Intelligent Investing feature, Forbes.com interviews David M. Cordani, President and CEO of Cigna and a member of the National Association of Manufacturers’ board of directors. From “Get Briefed,” in which Cordani reviews the new health care law, which he says addressed one challenge — access to care. Now, it’s time to “tackle the remaining twin challenges of managing health care costs and closing gaps in quality of care.”

The empirical data is in: consumer-oriented plans bend the cost curve in a positive way, without compromising care.

Our ChoiceFund study, a multi-year study comparing the actual claims experience of 655,000 individuals covered in Cigna’s traditional managed care plans and those covered with our consumer directed plans, shows that medical costs for individuals in consumer-directed plans went down 26% over four years, while levels of care for their preventive medicine, chronic disease management and evidence-based treatments were higher than their counterparts in traditional managed care health plans.

If the share of Americans enrolled in consumer-directed plans rose from a current 18% to 50%, and the results of the Cigna study were applied, the U.S. could achieve $350 billion in savings over 10 years.

In a recent Wall Street Journal column, John Lechleiter, president and CEO of Eli Lilly, looks further down the road and sees a serious threat to U.S. leadership in life sciences, including pharmaceutical R&D. From “America’s Growing Innovation Gap“:

The evidence is certainly mounting that we are facing today nothing short of an innovation crisis in America’s life sciences. The industry I know best, biopharmaceuticals, is facing unprecedented pressure. R&D costs continue to rise, fewer potential new medicines gain regulatory approval, and key products lose patent protection. In fact, the number of new molecular entities approved by the FDA over the past five years—92—is lower than in any other five-year period since I entered the industry in the late 1970s.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world is not standing still. The U.S. is not the only country looking to the life sciences to drive economic growth, and the very qualities that brought much of the world’s research capacity to our shores could just as easily attract that work to Asia or elsewhere.

In examining the growing conflict between business and the Obama Administration, CNBC host and commentator Larry Kudlow included Lechleiter as one of the business leaders warning against overregulation and taxation. (continue reading…)

Marion C. Blakely, the president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association, has taken note of the NAM’s new report from the Milken Institute, “Jobs for America,” including the analysis of the economic impact of NextGen, the advanced air transportation system, and aerospace manufacturing. From a statement:

Jobs for America says that more than 182,000 jobs could result from a $10.4 billion government investment in the Next Generation Air Transportation System.

NextGen is a solution at hand for our nation. The program is shovel ready and in addition to generating jobs will enhance the safety, security and environmental stewardship of our transportation system.

Jobs for America also calls out the value of aerospace manufacturing, which employs high-skilled labor and pays above average wages with an extensive value chain that stimulates many other manufacturing industries. According to our research, there are already 2,436 manufacturing, maintenance and installation facilities operating in every state of the union. Investment in NextGen will add more jobs to these already established and productive facilities.