Foreign Technology

The National Critical Technologies Panel, the Defense Department, and the Department of Commerce have each developed lists of defense-related and commercial technologies of major importance to the U.S. national interest. This report (1) determines the extent to which key U.S. officials and industry representatives used five federal processes for collecting and disseminating foreign technology information as well as in developing the federal critical technologies lists, (2) identifies the sources and nature of the foreign technology information used to develop the federal critical technologies lists, and (3) presents the views of U.S. officials and industry representatives on opportunities to improve federal processes for collecting foreign technology information. GAO also provides information on the (1) disparity in the number of researchers and students exchanged between the United States and Japan and (2) nature of selected U.S. private sector efforts to collect and disseminate foreign technology information.

GAO found that: (1) the National Critical Technologies Panel, the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Commerce each develop lists of critical defense-related and commercial technologies of significant importance to the U.S. national interest; (2) two of the five federal processes were not in operation during list development, and officials involved in developing the lists did not use the other three processes in developing the lists, since they did not consider them very useful or accessible; (3) the officials instead used briefings from DOD, Commerce, and other federal sources, internal agency experts, private-sector associations, and informal discussions to obtain information for the lists; (4) federal officials noted that copyright requirements and clearances, limited resources for translating materials, and the classified or proprietary nature of information restricted information dissemination efforts; and (5) officials suggested that list development processes could improve with market research on customer needs, increased visits by U.S. researchers to other countries, and a directory of experts on critical technologies. GAO also found that: (1) twice as many Japanese researchers work and study in the United States for 1 month or longer as U.S. researchers in Japan, and there are more than 16 times as many Japanese students in U.S. universities than U.S. students in Japanese universities; and (2) private-sector efforts are more successful in collecting and disseminating foreign technology information mainly because they are focused towards their clients' needs.