The House 2009 Defense Authorization Bill has a section that allows for punitive actions to be taken against “a foreign-owned company that is engaged with the People’s Republic of China in the development, manufacture or launch of certain satellites” (Paid Subscription Required).

This is about Thales Alenia Space, which has communications satellites that use no US content, and they are cleaning up by using the dirt cheap Chinese Long March boosters to launch satellites that have no ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) components.

It appears that something got Duncan Hunter’s (R-CA) nose out of joint about this, but given the restrictions on what are commercial technology present in the ITAR regulations, it was inevitable that this would happen.

I wonder if the WTO will end up getting involved in this.