Parts of this report were originally prepared by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute
of International Studies in January 1998 under a grant from the United
States Department of Energy's Office of Nonproliferation and Arms Control.
The views expressed in this report are those of the authors alone, and
do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Energy or the
United States Government.
Introduction
Administrative Bodies
Export Control Legislation
Export Licensing Process
Export
Control Developments
INTRODUCTION
In the first few years following its independence in 1991, Georgia was
plagued by ethnic and civil strife. When President Eduard Shevardnadze
came to power in late 1995, he managed to return the country to some degree
of stability. Since that time, Georgia has focused much of its
energies on dealing with pressing political, economic, and social problems,
including the on-going separatist movement in the Abkhazian region of the
country. As a result, Georgia's nonproliferation export controls remain
in an early stage of development.
According to a paper written by Georgian Foreign Ministry officials
in fall 1997, Georgia first began to understand the role that export controls
could play in its security and potential prosperity after participating
in the Washington Forum on Export Control and
Nonproliferation for Senior Government Officials, held in Istanbul in September
1996. The meeting was organized by Turkey and the US Departments of State
and Commerce, and focused on Caucasian and Central Asian states.[1] After
this initial exposure, however, Georgia mobilized fairly quickly to address
the issue. In December 1996 an interagency working group was created to develop a legal
basis for export controls. Less than a year later, Georgia had already
drafted a comprehensive export control law, which was
passed
by the Georgian Parliament on 28 April 1998.[2,3] The Law committed the executive branch to
pass a series of implementing documents that would provide
detailed control lists and descriptions of export control authorities and export
licensing procedures. The President of Georgia defined this task more
specifically in Presidential Edict No. 424 of 4 July 1999.[4]
Presidential Edict
No. 408 of 22 September 2002 adopted a comprehensive list of dual-use items
subject to export control, defined export control authorities, and licensing
procedures.[5]
Georgia does not produce nuclear,
chemical, or biological weapons, but the country's industrial and medical sectors use
components that could also be used in WMD systems.[6] In addition, there are two
nuclear research institutes
in Georgia that once housed small quantities of
HEU. In 1994, long before Georgia had begun to focus on export
controls, the Institute
of Physics in Georgia exported approximately 5kg of 90% HEU to Uzbekistan
for use in its nuclear research reactor.[7] In April
1998, all remaining fresh and spent fuel was removed from the Institute and
transferred to the United Kingdom under Operation
Auburn Endeavor/Project Olympus. The
second nuclear research institute, the Sukhumi
Institute of Physics and Technology (SIPT), was located in Abkhazia until
the mid-1990s, when armed conflict
in the region caused the relocation of its personnel to Tbilisi. In 1997 a
Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy inspection team reported that 2kg of HEU
that had been at the facility in Abkhazia in the early 1990s was missing.
The whereabouts of the HEU are unknown.[8] The Abkhazian instability also raises concerns
regarding Georgia's potential as a transit country for illegal exports. Approximately one half of Georgia's 310km Black Sea coastline is located
in Abkhazia and is not monitored by Georgian authorities.
EXPORT CONTROL ADMINISTRATIVE BODIES
The Ministry of Economy, Industry and Trade (MEIT) is
charged with:
- bringing the list of controlled dual-use items into conformity with
international norms; implementing export control rules; attracting technical assistance
from donor countries and
international organizations;[1]
- carrying out the legal activities necessary for implementation of export, re-export, and
transit state control rules, together with the respective governmental
agencies;[2]
- issuing one time licenses for export, re-export, and transit of dual-use
items.[3]
The Standing Interagency Commission on Military-Technical Issues under the
National Security Council is responsible for:
- giving recommendations to MEIT on export, re-export, and transit of
sensitive strategic dual-use items. Sensitive strategic items are
marked in the list of dual-use products with an asterisk (*);[3]
- defining control lists and lists of products subject to export control
together with the governmental agencies and submitting them for approval to the
President of Georgia;[4]
- defining the list of states, for which exports of dual-use items are
restricted through Georgian customs, and
submitting it for approval to the President of Georgia.[4]
The Customs Department of the Ministry of Finance is charged with:
- tracking the export and import of licensed goods;
- submitting information to MEIT on a quarterly basis regarding the export or
temporary import of dual-use items subject to export control.[3]
EXPORT CONTROL LEGISLATION
Georgian Presidential Edict
No. 408, On
Some Measures for Resolution of the Issues of Export, Re-export, and Transit of
Dual-use Goods Subject to Export Control, 22 September 2002
This Edict adopted:
- The Statute on State Control Rules for Export, Re-export, and Transit of
Dual-use Goods Subject to Export Control.
The statute mainly appoints agencies in charge of the export control and
licensing procedures (including the intergovernmental process).
- The list of dual-use goods subject to export control.
The list is comprehensive and is in line with international standards. The list includes 26 groups of
goods with detailed
description of the products in each group.
- A standardized form for export licensing of dual-use goods.[1]
Georgian Presidential Edict
No. 424, On Some Measures of Export Control of Dual-use Goods (Technologies,
Equipment, Services), 4 July 1999
This Edict was issued according to Article 6, Section "d" of the Georgian
export control law (which entered into force on 1 September
1998), which gives the President of Georgia the responsibility to define the
authority of the executive bodies in the field of export control. The Edict is a transitional document which is designed to facilitate the establishment of
the export control system according to the Georgian export control law.
The edict assigns the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Trade
(MEIT) the task of implementing export controls on the bases of recommendations from the Standing Interagency Commission on Military-Technical
Issues under the National Security Council. MEIT is instructed to
expand the list of controlled dual-use items, and the statute on rules for export, re-export, and transit of dual-use goods in
cooperation with the respective governmental agencies, and submit to the president
for confirmation.
The Edict defines a 15-month transitional period before the control list enters
into force, during which MEIT, the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Justice,
the Georgian
Academy of Sciences, and other relevant ministries and agencies should take necessary
steps to establish an export control system and
introduce that system to companies and enterprises.[2]
Law of Georgia on the Export Control of Weapons,
Military Equipment, and Dual-Use Items, 28 April 1998
Georgia's first comprehensive export control law was
approved by the Georgian Parliament in early 1998 and entered into force on 1
September 1998.[2,3] The law was developed by an interagency working group
in cooperation with experts from the US Department of Commerce. The working
group consisted of officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
Ministry of Trade and Foreign Economic Relations, the Ministry of Defense,
the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of State Security, the Department
of Border Defense, the Customs Department, the National Security Council,
and two Parliamentary Committees: the Judiciary Committee and the Committee
for Defense and Security of Georgia. The Parliamentary Subcommittee on
Military Industries of the Committee for Defense and Security took the
lead in drafting the law.
The law provides a sound legal basis for nonproliferation export
controls in Georgia. It explicitly states that one of the main principles
regulating export controls in Georgia is the observation of international
obligations regarding the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The law gives the government of Georgia the responsibility for developing
an export control system and for defining the responsibilities of executive
branch agencies in the sphere of export controls. In addition, the
government
is specifically responsible for granting export permission for items subject
to export control. Although the government is tasked with drawing up control
lists, the law states that the following categories of items of are subject
to export controls:
- conventional arms and military technology; and raw materials, materials,
special equipment and technology, and services connected with their production;
- nuclear materials, technology, equipment, and facilities; special
non-nuclear materials and products; dual-use equipment and technologies;
radiation sources and isotope products; and "lists of items established
by international nonproliferation regimes;"
- chemicals and dual-use technologies which could be used in the creation
of a chemical weapon "in accordance with lists of items established by
international nonproliferation regimes;"
- disease agents, their genetically changed forms, and fragments of
genetic material which could be used in the creation of a bacteriological
(biological) weapon; and "lists of items established by international nonproliferation
regimes;"
- equipment, materials, and technologies that could be used in the
creation of a missile, and "lists of items established by international
nonproliferation regimes;"
- scientific-technical information, services, and results of intellectual
activity that is connected to military products;
- any other products defined by the government of Georgia.
The law also outlines the process for obtaining an export license and
explicitly states that nuclear materials can only be exported if the importing
country guarantees that:
-
the items will not be used in the production of a nuclear weapon or for
the achievement of any military goal;
-
the items will be placed under IAEA safeguards;-
the items will be placed under physical protection at levels not less than
those recommended by the IAEA;
-
the items will be re-exported only if the third country can guarantee the
three conditions above;-
in the case of HEU enriched to over 20 percent, plutonium, or heavy water,
re-export will take place only with the written permission of the relevant
authorities within Georgia.[3]
The law commits executive branch to pass a series of implementing documents
that will provide more detailed control lists and descriptions of export control
authorities and export licensing procedures.[4] For
a translation of the 1998
law, please click here.
Cabinet of Ministers Decree No. 35, 23 January 1995; Cabinet of Ministers
Decree No. 475 (Amendment to Decree No. 35)
These decrees establish
procedures for issuing export licenses for certain goods and services and
specify those goods that can be exported only by licensed enterprises.
According to these decrees, certain goods may not be exported under any
circumstances, including rare-earth metals and arms, as well as non-military
items such as antiques, museum-quality artwork, copper, and other precious
metals. All or parts of these decrees were presumably superseded by Georgia's
1998 export control law and
Presidential Edict No. 408 of 22 September 2002.Cabinet of Ministers Decree No. 744, 30 November 1995
This decree prohibits the export of munitions from Georgia.[4]
EXPORT LICENSING PROCESS
According to the
Georgian
export control law and Presidential edicts No. 424 of 4 July 1999
and No. 408 of 22 September 2002, one-time licenses for the export of dual-use items
are issued by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Trade (MEIT). In
the case of
sensitive strategic dual-use items, MEIT issues licenses on the basis of
recommendations from the Standing Interagency Commission on Military-Technical
Issues under the National Security Council.
Licenses for the export of dual-use items can be issued if relevant governmental
agencies of the importing state agree that the imported
products:
- will not be used for the development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), or
other military purposes;
- will be subjected to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safeguards
during the entire period of their use;
- will be physically protected in accordance with IAEA recommendations.
By a decision of the Georgian President, the export and re-export of dual-use
items to those states that violate international agreements on
the development, storage, destruction, or use of WMD,
as well as exports that threaten Georgian national interests, may be restricted.
For export, re-export, or transit licenses, an exporter must apply to MEIT and submit
the following documents:
- a license application, according to the Georgian general administrative code
requirements;
- an export contract, which (in case of export) should stipulate that MEIT has
the
right to request information from relevant governmental agencies of the
importer state concerning the final use of the imported products.
After receiving the license, the exporter must submit original copies of the license and
contract to Customs. If the license is annulled after it is issued, MEIT must notify the Customs Department of the Ministry of Finance and
the National Border Guard.[1,2]
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