Commerce Secretary Locke Meets with Defense Secretary Gates on Export Controls and Business Visa Reform

Today, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates at the Pentagon. Their meeting centered on export controls and business visa reform and the importance of considering improvements to these systems that will make United States exporters more competitive, leading to more U.S. jobs and economic growth.

Locke and Gates met for an hour and agreed to continue to work together with their counterparts at other cabinet agencies toward these important reforms. The secretaries plan to meet again in the next few weeks with fellow administration officials to address their progress.

President Obama has identified reform of the export controls system as a component of increasing the competitiveness of U.S. companies, keeping in mind the paramount importance of national security.

The Commerce Department, through its Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), is working to advance U.S. national security, foreign policy and economic objectives by ensuring an effective export control and treaty compliance system and by promoting U.S. strategic technology leadership.