Wassenaar Arrangement

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 41 participating states including many former COMECON (Warsaw Pact) countries.

The Wassenaar Arrangement has been established in order to contribute to regional and international security and stability, by promoting transparency and greater responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, thus preventing destabilising accumulations. Participating States seek, through their national policies, to ensure that transfers of these items do not contribute to the development or enhancement of military capabilities which undermine these goals, and are not diverted to support such capabilities.

It is the successor to the Cold War-era Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM), and was established on 12 July 1996, in Wassenaar, the Netherlands, which is near The Hague. The Wassenaar Arrangement is considerably less strict than COCOM, focusing primarily on the transparency of national export control regimes and not granting veto power to individual members over organizational decisions. A Secretariat for administering the agreement is located in Vienna, Austria. Like COCOM, however, it is not a treaty, and therefore is not legally binding.

Every six months member countries exchange information on deliveries of conventional arms to non-Wassenaar members that fall under eight broad weapons categories: battle tanks, armored combat vehicles (ACVs), large-caliber artillery, military aircraft, military helicopters, warships, missiles or missile systems, and small arms and light weapons.

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 is broken into two parts, the "List of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies" (also known as the Basic List) and the "Munitions List". The Basic List is composed of ten categories based on increasing levels of sophistication:

• Category 1 – Special Materials and Related Equipment
• 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

Basic List has two nested subsections—Sensitive and Very Sensitive. Items of the Very Sensitive List include materials for stealth technology—i.e., equipment that could be used for submarine detection, advanced radar, and jet engine technologies.

The Munitions List has 22 categories, which are not labeled.

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
• Ability to effectively control the export of the goods
• 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

Membership

As of January 2012, the 41 participating states are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, the Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States. China and Israel are also not members, but they have aligned their export controls with Wassenaar lists, and are significant arms exporters.^[2]

The Arrangement is open on a global and non-discriminatory basis to prospective adherents that comply with the agreed criteria. Admission of new members requires the consensus of all members.

Admission requires states to:

• Be a producer or exporter of arms or sensitive industrial equipment
• Maintain non-proliferation policies and appropriate national policies, including adherence to:
  • Non-proliferation policies, such as (where applicable) the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, and the Australia Group
  • Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Biological Weapons Convention, the Chemical Weapons Convention and, where applicable, START I (including the Lisbon Protocol)
• Maintain fully effective export controls

Future memberships

During a state visit to India in November 2010, U.S. president Barack Obama announced U.S. support for India's bid for permanent membership to UN Security Council^[3] as well as India's entry to Nuclear Suppliers Group, Wassenaar Arrangement, Australia Group, and Missile Technology Control Regime.^[4][5]

See also

• Arms Export Control Act
• Defense Security Cooperation Agency
• Export Control Classification Number
• International Traffic in Arms Regulations

References

External links

• Wassenaar Arrangement