For the first time since the Cold War, America will overhaul its archaic and highly restrictive export-control system after a yearlong review by the Defense Department, according to multiple reports.

Tuesday President Barack Obama will announce that his administration is easing export restrictions in an effort to boost the economy and create jobs.

Critics of the current export-control regime claim that it is too outdated, confusing and restrictive.

Under the proposed changes, a tiered system would be set up. The highest tier would include those technologies and materials most sensitive to national security. Those would still be restricted under the changes. Restrictions on products and technologies in the lower two levels would be eased, making it easier for the nation’s manufacturers to export their goods and service.

In addition, the oversight of the list, which is now controlled jointly by the U.S. Commerce Department and the State Department, would be streamlined to allow for better cooperation, transparency and quicker approval.

“The United States is thought to have one of the most stringent export regimes in the world. But stringent is not the same as effective,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in an address to the Business Executives for National Security, according to The Hill. “It makes little sense to use the same lengthy process to control the export of every latch, wire and lug nut for a piece of equipment like the F-16 when we have already approved the export of the whole aircraft.”

For example, tank brake pads are restricted under the current law despite the fact that they are essentially the same as brake pads for fire trucks that are exported by American manufacturers.

Under the new plan, tank brake pads would be OK’ed for export. According to the Aerospace Industries Association, 74 percent of the 12,000 products listed in the Tanks and Military Vehicles section of the U.S. Munitions List could have been safely exported.

“These initiatives will greatly improve our national security,” AIA President and CEO Marion Blakely said in a press release. “Enhanced interoperability with friends and allies will increase our ability to defend our common interests, and better controls for truly sensitive items will help keep them out of the hands of our adversaries.”

Those sentiments, that the relaxed export controls would actually boost national security, were echoed by National Security Advisor Jim Jones.

“But the current export control system was established in another era, during the Cold War, when many key war-fighting technologies were developed first by the U.S. and primarily by the government,” he writes in The Wall Street Journal. “Today, our military is more dependent on technology initially developed by private companies for commercial purposes. It is therefore critical to our national security that our export control system enhances, not undermines, the competitiveness of U.S. industry.”

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