(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday for a review of rules governing exports of military equipment, as he seeks to make it easier for U.S. defense firms to sell their products abroad.
"We're unable to provide weapons systems in a reliable, effective way to key allies of ours, and the key driver of that is inefficiencies and inconsistencies with the process by which we approve foreign military sales," White House aide Will Scharf said at the signing ceremony in the Oval Office.
"So this executive order is going to direct your Department of Defense, Department of State, other relevant departments and agencies, to rework our system of foreign defense sales to ensure that we can provide equipment creating American jobs and providing obviously revenue to American defense manufacturers, but provide key military equipment to our key allies in a reliable, effective way," he said.
Reuters reported on April 1 that Trump was planning an order that would ease rules governing exports of military equipment, similar to legislation proposed by Michael Waltz, his national security adviser, last year when he was a Republican member of the House of Representatives.
The order could increase sales for big U.S. defense contractors like Lockheed Martin , RTX and Boeing .
Currently, the U.S. Arms Export Control Act gives Congress the right to review arms exports to other countries, depending on how close an ally a country is and the size of the planned sale.
During his first term, Trump often expressed frustration with members of Congress delaying foreign arms sales over human rights or other concerns.
In 2019, he infuriated many lawmakers, including some fellow Republicans, by declaring a national emergency because of tensions with Iran. That allowed him to sweep aside a long-standing precedent for congressional review of major weapons sales and complete the sale of over $8 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
At the time, members of Congress had been blocking sales of military equipment to Saudi Arabia and the UAE for months, angry about the civilian toll from their air campaign in Yemen, as well as human rights abuses such as the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Turkey.
Trump also signed an order on Wednesday launching a general review of procurement programs at the Department of Defense.
"With this executive order, we're going to be modernizing the procurement structure the Department of Defense uses to allow it to more quickly adapt to changing circumstances around the world," Scharf said.
"And we're also going to be launching a review of existing procurement programs to ensure that we're getting value for the money, to ensure that we're getting the best possible systems in the field," Scharf said.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Andrea Shalal; Additional reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones;Editing by Marguerita Choy)
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