In mid-June the UK signed a Technology Safeguards Agreement with the US, joining New Zealand which did so in 2016. That leaves Canada and Australia as the remaining members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance to do so.
SpaceQ spoke with Ken Hodgkins, formerly of the US State Department to discuss a possible Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) agreement between Canada and the US.
Hodgkins retired in late March from the US State Department and has since started his own consulting company, International Space Enterprise Consultants, LLC.
It was in October of 2018 that Hodgkins, then the Director for the Office of Space and Advanced Technology at the US State Department, told an Ottawa audience that Canada was an emerging launching state. This took many in the audience by surprise. After all, Canada has no launch capability nor active launch facilities and a successive governments with no interested in either. What Canada does have is a young group of recent university graduates looking to change that equation along with a company, Maritime Launch Services, looking to build an orbital launch facility, a spaceport, in Nova Scotia.
What is a Technology Safeguards Agreement
The first thing you need to understand is that no two TSA’s are exactly alike. As Hodgkins puts it, a TSA is “kind of a hybrid” agreement that encompasses ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and the Missile Technology Control Regime.
“Those two things are kind of intertwined in the Technology Safeguards Agreement, because there’s some things in the agreement that we have with New Zealand and in the agreement that we have with the UK that are not ITAR specific, but are missile non proliferation specific.”
So this means a TSA can include launching rockets, US satellites and satellite with US components.
Hodgkins said he worked on and off again on the New Zealand agreement.
That agreement stated purpose “is to preclude unauthorized access to or transfer of technologies associated with the launching from New Zealand of; U.S. Launch Vehicles; U.S. Spacecraft by means of U.S. Launch Vehicles; Foreign Spacecraft by means of U.S. Launch Vehicles; and N.Z. Spacecraft by means of U.S. Launch Vehicles.”
If Canada is to negotiate a TSA with the US it will like have a similar purpose but possibly different General Provisions. It’s those General Provisions where things can get bogged down.
Hodgkins said many nations find negotiating a TSA can difficult as the US will add provisions that are “fairly intrusive.” An example is the TSA negotiated with Brazil in 2001. After the Brazilian government had come to an agreement with the US, the Brazilian Congress failed to ratify it. The Brazilian Congress had “extra terrestrial issues” with the agreement.
The Five Eyes advantage
However, Canada has an advantage over Brazil, as the UK and New Zealand did. Hodgkins said “having Canada as part of the Five Eyes makes a huge difference in terms of our confidence that the TSA will go well.”
“So for me, it was fascinating when Canada started thinking about the possibility of becoming a launching state to join New Zealand and then potentially the UK and Australia.”
This “is pretty groundbreaking, because it took us like 60 years to get to this rather interesting club of launching states. You know, when you look at it, you’ve got North Korea and Iran as part of that. But now, you know, within 10 years we could have four new launching states.”
It could take a year to negotiate an agreement. Hodgkins is confident an agreement can get done.
“So I think the TSA, you know, again, it depends on the treaty practice with the individual country and you know what they’re prepared to do, but since we have such a close relationship with Canada, on highly secure things. You know, this should be a piece of cake.”
I asked about what it would mean for businesses in each nation. He noted at first, that “the marketplace is outpacing policy making in Washington I think and in other capitals.” Governments in other words, need to catch up.
“The exciting part is once it’s once it’s put into place, and everybody knows, you know, everybody knows what needs to be done. And so you don’t have unexpected things happening. deep into the into the program.” In other words, an agreement would help companies on both sides of the border expanding business opportunities for all concerned.
With a US November election looming I asked Hodgkins if a change in US government would affect the negotiating process and a possible agreement. He said no, it shouldn’t affect any agreement.
With the Five Eyes alliance working even more closely together it seems likely that Canada and Australia will soon become the final two members to sign TSA’s with the US.
Whispers coming from Ottawa suggest that Canada is very much interested in seeing a TSA signed with the US.