
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 3, 1990                   TAG: 9005030376
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. EASES EAST BLOC PURCHASING

President Bush agreed Wednesday to ease the sale of high technology equipment to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, advancing a plan intended to reflect warmer East-West relations despite current tensions with the Soviets over their stranglehold on Lithuania.

Responding to pressure from U.S. manufacturers as well as Western allies, Bush cut by one-fourth the 120 categories of machinery, equipment and other goods for which Eastern bloc nations must obtain special licenses to purchase.

His proposal would eliminate restrictions on the purchase of nearly all personal computers, some machine tools and certain types of telecommunications equipment, such as cellular systems and satellite ground stations. Those items are determined to be of "low strategic value" in terms of national security and are already available from other sources, the White House said.

The president also proposed to U.S. partners in the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls, the 17-nation group of Western allies that approves such restrictions, that the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe be given additional privileges beyond those granted to the Soviet Union.

In particular, Bush would like to provide countries such as Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia with modern fiber optics equipment and microwave telecommunications systems.

The U.S. computer industry and other U.S. businesses have long been pushing for an end to these restrictions.

Intelligence experts say the Warsaw Pact nations no longer pose a threat to the United States, said Richard Barth of the National Security Council staff.

by CNB