Wassenar arrangement

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 40 participating states.
It is the successor to the Cold war-era Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM), and was established on July 12, 1996, in theDutch town of Wassenaar, 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 administrating the agreement is located in Vienna, Austria.
|Contents|
|1 Control Lists |
|2 Membership |
|3 References |
|4 See also |
|5 Externallinks |


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 BasicList is composed of ten Categories based on increasing levels of sophistication. The Categories are:
• 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: a Sensitive List and a Very Sensitive List. Items of the Very Sensitive List include materials for stealth technology, equipment that can be used for submarine detection, advanced radar, and jet engine technologies.
The Munitions Listhas 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.
• 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 theAustralia Group, Nuclear Suppliers Group, or Missile Technology Control Regime




An Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) is a specific alpha-numeric code that identifies the level of export control for articles, technology and software (collectively, "Items") that are exported from member states of the Wassenaar Arrangement, including the United States. The ECCN classification thatapplies to any specific item is determined by referring to a table that is issued for the United States by the Bureau of Industry and Security.
The ECCN table contains hundreds of ECCN codes that are organized according to the technical parameters and/or end use of the hardware, software or technology that is being exported.
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Purpose

In the U.S., the Bureau of Industry and Securityallows private industry to self-classify exported items with the exception of certain items containing encryption functionality. In the case of encryption hardware/software, the US company would need to request a product classification ruling from the Bureau of Industry and Security. Although many different U.S. and foreign entities may be involved in manufacturing and distributing an item,...