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IIRC this is part of what shifted hardware manufacturing out of the US.

If you wanted to build in the U.S. you had to produce two versions of your product, one with “full encryption” and one with encryption hobbled.

Or you could go build one version somewhere else and import it into the U.S.

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Similar situation with space hardware. Even cots memory chips hardened for radiation and space are ITAR export restricted.

Yeah, I worked at a company up to a few years ago where it was actually a huge competitive advantage for us not being in the US, because the products we designed, manufactured and sold (full satcom terminals as well as the microwave converters in them) would have been ITAR if they came from the US (being ‘dual use’).

I had never heard of this particular aspect of demanufacturing, that's fascinating. Do you know of any products where this was a deciding factor, or at least a major consideration? (I recognize you probably can't easily cite internal corporate documents)

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