Today, the Commerce Department is informing the member nations of the Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM) that the United States will decontrol the sale of wire-bonding technology to "proscribed destinations, " i.e. the Warsaw Pact.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

Contending that wire-bonding machines were available to the Soviet Union from non COCOM-controlled foreign sources, Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher decided -- despite vigorous objections from the Defense Department and a contrary finding from the U.S. intelligence community -- to utilize his authority under the Export Administration Act to decontrol this technology.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy