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To help slow the spread of WMD equipment, material, and technology, nations
concerned about proliferation have banded together on several occasions to control
exports of these items. In the nuclear field, the supplier countries that are
members of the
Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear
Weapons
(NPT)
established the NPT Exporters Committee, also known as the
Zangger
Committee. The Committee ensures that any nuclear exports from member countries
are subject to International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections in the country that receives them.
The IAEA monitors the exported equipment or material to ensure that is not used
for a nuclear weapon program. After India's 1974 nuclear test, nuclear-supplier
countries established a second organization, which included countries, such
as France, which were not parties to the NPT. It is called the
Nuclear
Suppliers Group (NSG).
National export controls on materials and equipment for producing biological
weapons (BW) and chemical weapons (CW) are harmonized by the
Australia
Group. Since 1997, many CW-related chemicals are also controlled through
the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Missiles are controlled through an organization known as the
Missile
Technology Control Regime (MTCR), as well as through the
Hague Code of Conduct Against Ballistic Missile
Proliferation. The Code commits member states to curb the proliferation of
WMD-capable ballistic missiles, and to exercise restraint when developing,
testing, and deploying such missiles.
How the Export Control Systems Operate
All of the supplier groups develop lists of the items they want to control.
Each member country then passes laws regulating the export of the items on
the list. Companies that want to export a controlled item must obtain a license
from the government of the exporting country. For some items, such as facilities
that can manufacture missiles, licenses are never granted. For other items,
such as some chemicals that could be used for beneficial insecticides but
also for CW, licensing officials allow the export only if they are convinced
that it will not be misused for weapons purposes.
The Costs of Export Controls
Export controls are controversial because they restrict trade. Often licenses
are denied for items that the receiving country says it plans to use for
non-military purposes, but that export-licensing officials believe will
actually be used for weapons. In cases like these involving dual-use
items, such as high-speed computers, many exporting companies believe that
the profits they lose when export licenses are denied outweigh the benefits
of blocking transfers to countries of proliferation concern.
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