Still, the Bush administration could opt to continue delaying approval for the export of U.S. communications satellites to China out of concern about whether Beijing has done enough to curb sales of sensitive missile-related technology.
Projects that have been held up include Chinasat-8 and Apstar5 by Loral Space Systems, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service reported last year. Also, two satellites with U.S. components requiring U.S. authorization are Intelsat's APR-3 satellite from Astrium SAS of France and Italy's Alenia Spazio Atlantic-Bird-1 satellite, the research service said.
China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corp. bought Asiasat-8, valued at nearly $200 million, in 1998 with plans to launch it on a Long March rocket.
But before the launch could take place, a Republican-led House of Representatives panel concluded that China had used launches of U.S.-built satellites to steal data that could be used to fine-tune Red Army missile-firing capabilities.
In its most recent action, the Du Du % DI=?????1/2?? Defense Trade Controls stopped short of rejecting Loral's application. Instead, it returned it without action on Jan. 4, 2001, two weeks before Bill Clinton left the White House.
In a federal filing on Wednesday, the company said that the cost of the fine, about 4 cents per share, would be reflected in its fourth quarter results.
Loral shares closed on Wednesday trading down 16 cents, or 5.1 percent, at $2.98 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Last year, Schwartz argued that tighter export controls triggered by fears of Chinese espionage were crippling the U.S. satellite industry and undermining U.S. technological supremacy at a time of fierce global competition.
``I do believe that American industry has been damaged,'' he said, noting that the U.S. share of commercial satellite orders worldwide had fallen below 50 percent last year for the first time.
In the two years since Congress tightened export curbs on commercial satellites, the U.S. share of the global market has plunged to 45 percent from an average of 75 percent during the previous 10 years, the Satellite Industry Association, a trade group, reported last year.
Loral's top two U.S. competitors -- Hughes Electronics Corp.'s satellite manufacturing unit, now owned by Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA - news), and Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT - news) -- have also been charged with violations of export control rules, charges they have denied.