Wassenaar Arrangement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Wassenaar Arrangement (full name: "The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies") is a multilateral export control regime (MECR) with 40 participating states.
It is the successor to the Cold war-era Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM), and was established on May 12, 1996, in the Dutch town of Wassenaar, near The Hague. A Secretariat for administrating the agreement is located in Vienna, Austria.
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[edit] Control Lists
The outline of the arrangement is set out in a document entitled "Guidelines & Procedures, including the Initial Elements." [1] The list of restricted technologies are broken into two parts, the "List of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies" and the "Munitions List". The dual-use list is composed of ten Categories based on increasing levels of sophistication. The Categories are:
- Category 1 - Advanced Materials
- Category 2 - Materials Processing
- Category 3 - Electronics
- Category 4 - Computers
- Category 5 - Part 1 - Telecommunications
- Category 5 - Part 2 - "Information Security"
- Category 6 - Sensors and "Lasers"
- Category 7 - Navigation and Avionics
- Category 8 - Marine
- Category 9 - Aerospace and Propulsion
The Munitions List has 22 categories, which are not labelled.
In order for an item to be placed on the lists, Member States must take into account the following criteria:
- Foreign availability outside Participating States.
- The ability to control effectively the export of the goods.
- The ability to make a clear and objective specification of the item.
- Controlled by another regime, such as the Australia Group, Nuclear Suppliers Group, or Missile Technology Control Regime
[edit] Membership
As of May 2008, the 40 participating states are: [2] Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States.
Israel, which announced its intention to abide by the arrangement in December 2006, is the most recent state to do so.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
- International Traffic in Arms Regulations
- Arms Export Control Act
- Defense Security Cooperation Agency
- Export Control Classification Number
