Category: Trade Security

Among the recommendations:

1. That the government conduct a full review of the case for a pre-licence register of arms brokers;
2. That the government review current laws and regulations with regards to military end-use controls;
3. That the government consider industry’s concerns and make public the criteria used for imposing civil penalties and how the amounts of such penalties are calculated; and
4. Requests that the government assesses the risk that individual arms exports may be linked to bribery and corruption during the licence approval process.

Under a section titled “Countries of Concern,” the Committees detail transactions to Israel, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and China and states that the government may have “misjudged the risk that arms approved for export to certain authoritarian countries in North Africa and the Middle East might be used for internal repression.”

You can download the complete report from the House of Commons website.

The ECEC will be located at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and shall “serve as the primary forum within the Federal Government for executive departments and agencies to coordinate and enhance their export control enforcement efforts and identify and resolve conflicts that have not been otherwise resolved in criminal and administrative investigations and actions involving violations of U.S. export control laws”.

In the near future, we will have an additional, more detailed Client Update on this matter, and how it may impact your business or organization.  The complete text of the Executive Order is currently available at the White House press office website.