ITAR Waiver Defence Committee Comment

UK House of Commons Defence Committee, The Defence Committee has noted with concern media reports that negotiations with the US to win an ITAR Waiver for the UK have failed. 
 
According to the Financial Times, US Administration officials have concluded that political opposition on Capitol Hill to granting the UK a waiver from the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) is insurmountable. 
 
The ITAR create a bureaucratic barrier to the export of unclassified defence equipment and technology. 
 
The Committee regards that flow of equipment and technology as crucial to US-UK defence cooperation. Failure to achieve an ITAR waiver for the UK threatens the future of a number of joint procurement projects and has implications for UK defence policy and the UK defence industrial base. 
 
The Committee have pursued this issue for several years and warned in a recent report that if the waiver was not secured there was a