The government has recently announced at the Indian Chamber of Commerce to ensure enhanced export control of dual-use items to prevent their reach to non-state actors and terrorists.
- Dual-use items are those which are used for civilian and non-civilian purposes.
About Dual-Use Items:
- Dual-use items are goods that can be used both for civilian and military applications.
- Heavily regulated because they can be classified for civilian use and then transformed for military purposes, or worse, used for terrorism.
- Examples: Global positioning satellites, missiles, nuclear technology, chemical and biological weapons, night vision technology, thermal imaging, some models of drones, aluminium pipes with precise specifications or certain kinds of ball bearings.
Control over Dual-Use Items:
- Most industrial countries have export controls on certain types of designated dual-use technologies.
- There are a number of treaties signed for its export control.
- India is a signatory to the major multilateral export control regimes like Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) and Australia Group (AG) and Nuclear Supply Group (NSG).
- India is also a signatory to International Conventions on Non-Proliferation, namely Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BWC).
- In India, the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) functions as a facilitator of exports and imports.
- The DGFT prepares a special SCOMET (speciality chemicals, organisms, materials, equipment and technologies) list of dual-use items.
About SCOMET list:
- In Foreign Trade Policy, dual-use items have been given the nomenclature of SCOMET.
- The export of dual-use items and technologies under India’s Foreign Trade Policy is regulated.
- Export of dual-use items and technologies is either prohibited or permitted under a license.
- The SCOMET control list is aligned with the control lists of all the multilateral export control regimes and conventions.
- Export control of dual-use items is a challenging proposition in the area of technology transfer.
- Partnership among the governments, industries and other stakeholders is vital in export control of dual-use items.
Need for Control over Dual-Use Items:
- India is committed to the non-proliferation of dual-use items.
- It is an essential component of the nation’s export control system.
- It is done to make sure that sensitive and dual-use goods including Missile Technology Control Regime are traded in accordance with India’s obligation under several regimes.
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