Interpreting the trade rules: U.S. trade aide Michael Hoffman translates regs into reality.

Interpretation can be everything. Especially for Michael Hoffman, the senior U.S. government official in the West charged with interpreting what exports are deemed too sensitive, too explosive or too valuable to sell to the not-so-favored.

Export opportunities, however, are burgeoning with the end of the Cold War, and they're highly tempting: For instance, about $3 billion of desktop computer exports may become legalized this fall for shipment to countries no longer considered arch foes. But exactly matching state-of-the art technology to guidelines written by bureaucrats is tricky, and a slip-up in interpreting the partial deregulation could embarrass or hurt the United States, as it tries to control the proliferation of dangerous nuclear, biological and chemical technology.

"We have to walk a very thin line," says Hoffman, director of the U.S. Bureau of Export Administration for the 11 western states. Just 33 years old, Hoffman has fast-tracked his government career. Since May he has led the Newport Beach-based bureau, which is first base for many would-be Southland exporters.

Personal opinion has no place is his $70,000-a-year job. "Perception is as important as fact," he explains.

Unbiased and accurate interpretation of those regulations governing sales with national security or foreign policy ramifications is the sum of his job. Hoffman's straight-arrow approach to deciphering regs seems to flow from his cool and circumspect demeanor.

"He takes his role very seriously, very conscientiously," said Lydia McClure-Lee, import-export manager with NewGen Systems in Fountain Valley.

The son of an Alameda restaurateur and cocktail waitress who split up when he was young seems intense in his job. It's not surprising he's a long-time competitor in chess, poker and martial arts. He's a black belt in hapkido, a Korean hybrid of judo, tae kwon do and aikido. But his chops have slipped a bit, he admits, while devoting lots of energy to a trying job.

Four hundred telephone inquiries stream in daily, and Hoffman has vowed to give them "first-rate" advice. He and his staff of 14 are asked not just if, but why. Why does Uncle Sam ban exporting horses via ship? The regs' justification is their "short supply" in America.

But how do you explain to an exporter that technically the rules allow him to sell a radar to the Syrians, but that Washington, perennially jittery over Middle East policy, might nevertheless deny the needed export license?

Says Hoffman: "There is a line that's drawn, very clearly for most situations." Thumbs turned down recently for an Inglewood firm when Hoffman's staff squelched a planned sale of a metal-working machine for the Indian Space Research Organization until cleared by Hoffman's superiors at the Commerce Department in Washington. That group was sanctioned by the State and Commerce departments for aiding the proliferation of missile technology.

A Valencia company was also surprised when informed by Hoffman's crew that no special permit ("validated license") was needed to export certain supercomputer parts to Japan. The company names may not be disclosed to the press or public, under federal rules.

Hoffman has vowed to broadcast the major changes in regulations that will benefit manufacturers who wouldn't otherwise know.

He's planning a series of seminars on how to get an export license for munitions, and a workshop on avoiding prosecution for complying with certain Arab nations' boycott of Israel, and other foreign boycotts considered illegal by the U.S. government.

Bureau-sponsored seminars are nothing new, but Hoffman thinks his emphasis will hit home better than in the past, like one planned on converting defense contractors to peaceful exports.

"He's getting us to find new ways to reach new people," said Tiffany Solorzano, an export administration specialist at the bureau.

"He has much more of a service orientation toward the public than you might see from other bureaucrats," said McClure-Lee. "That's good when you need someone to go to bat for you."

But Hoffman admits there is a growing "gray area" that can be confusing to businesses. It concerns end use: Hoffman's bosses, from President Bush on down, are increasingly requiring Americans to know if their foreign buyers are planning to use the products against the U.S., to supply terrorists, build nuclear weapons and the like.

Hoffman says he will tell exporters, "If you get an order from a bakery for an oscilloscope, maybe you should ask" what the bakery is up to. And he admits the regulations "never insist you ask." But jail time can await an exporter who ignores "red-flag" information arising from the normal course of business, he says.

"You tell them to look for red flags from the buyers --offers to pay in cash, unusual routing. ... You can't tell your salesmen, 'Look, don't ask them how this Cray supercomputer will be used.' You can't self-blind."

Hoffman has played the heavy on occasion. He has turned over dope on an exporter to the bureau's enforcement division, in nearby Irvine. But usually, if a company ships to Serbia in violation of the U.S. embargo, for instance, he'll merely urge it to volunteer the details and abstain from more shipments. That can lessen potential penalties.

Skeptics look at the Bureau of Export Administration and wonder if sometimes its rulings are wiggly. Witness the Los Angeles Times' ongoing coverage of how the Bush administration approved sales of sophisticated technology to Iraq in the years prior to the Gulf War, despite intelligence warnings that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. It was a textbook case of what the bureau is supposed to quell. Evidence in recently declassified documents, widely reported in the major newspapers, raises questions whether Bush may have influenced the Commerce Department to tilt towards Iraq, for foreign policy reasons.

Hoffman wouldn't discuss whether Iraq-bound exports had been approved by his office, being under orders to refer questions to Washington. But he defends the bureau.

"Does the system keep a bad guy from getting dangerous technology? It makes it more difficult and more expensive," he says, acknowledging that Hussein and others can sometimes foil his efforts by trading via dummy companies worldwide. Ultimately, he said, "an airtight system would probably shut down exports, period."

Hoffman ought to know. It's the only business in which he's ever worked.

Fresh from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with a master's degree in government, plus special studies in national security and arms transfers, Hoffman was hired in 1984 by the Commerce Department essentially to do what he supervises today.

"The first day they sat me down and said, 'Here is the phone, here are the (export) regulations, go to it!'"

Callers demanded he find "lost" licenses. The bureau was created as a sub-agency in 1988. He rose to head its eastern division, covering New England and New York, based in New Hampshire. He left for Newport Beach in May, and behind him is a still-unsold home in economically depressed New Hampshire. Hoffman and his wife, who hasn't yet found a job in the Southland, currently rent in Balboa Peninsula.

Hoffman hasn't changed bureau operations much from his predecessor, Michael Liikala, who left to become regional director of a sister agency, the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service, based in San Francisco. Hoffman has kept Christel Vilogron, Liikala's No. 2 officer, in the same job.

SNAPSHOT

Michael Hoffman

Native of: Alameda Resident of: Balboa Peninsula Age: 33 Education: B.A. in political science from UC Berkeley, 1981; master's in government, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 1983.