For the friendliest nations, the President can make adjustments as he sees fit. On the more serious levels, changes require the approval of Congress, and that body may take up to 6 months to review a decision. Now, all this makes sense, until you realize that the last time we changed the export controls was 1996. Well, just follow the computer ads for a few weeks, and you'll know. The capability goes up, and the price goes down.
New models become old models in the space of just a few months.
Complete obsolescence can unfold in just a year and a half. This will soon be the same rating of an average, everyday pc in the not too distant future. No wonder everyone from Intel's Andy Grove to IBM's Lou Gerstner is jumping out of his seat. Still, the CEO's seem to just be asking for larger export numbers, and to me, this just invites the same situation all over again. Then we don't have to keep getting Congress and the President involved every time we need to raise the bar.