Your excellent "Talent spotting" feature (Flight International, 6-12 January) on the important and increasingly pressing problems within the aerospace industry of recruiting adequate staff for companies to meet their commercial needs did not mention one major issue.
Given the USA's nationality-based approach to export controls, and its "deemed export" provisions within its regulations, under which the ability of a foreign or dual national to have access to US-sourced controlled technology would represent an "export" to the nation concerned, companies also have to bear in mind US export control concerns when they recruit and allocate staff to work on projects which will involve US technology.
This presents particular problems for companies within the European Union, where the provisions of the Treaty of Rome on the movement and employment of citizens of other EU member states can seem to create an inherent conflict between meeting US and EU regulatory requirements.
Brinley Salzmann Exports Director, Direct Marketing Association, London, UK
Source: Flight International