Multilateral Export Control Regimes

The various informal regimes for coordinating export controls have the common aim of preventing sensitive technology and know-how from getting into the hands of states that might use them for military purposes. The main instruments to this end are lists of goods and substances as well as guidelines for their export to non-member countries. Austria is a member of all of these groups, whose recommendations are implemented through foreign trade legislation.

The 35-member Zangger Committee, under Austrian chairmanship, and the 39 member Nuclear Suppliers Group both control sensitive goods and equipment that might have applications in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. The Australia Group, which performs the same function in respect of chemical and biological weapons, now has 34 members after the accession of Bulgaria in 2001.

The 33 members of the Missile Technology Control Regime agreed at their general meeting in Ottawa in October that their draft International Code of Conduct to prevent the proliferation of guided ballistic missiles should be submitted to a larger multilateral negotiating process. This politically binding code is an attempt to bring the carrier systems for weapons of mass destruction under internationally agreed control. To this end, all of the interested states were invited to participate in a preparatory conference in Paris in February 2002, with the intention that the revised code would be adopted at an international conference in the Netherlands at the end of 2002.

The Vienna-based 33-member Wassenaar Arrangement is of central importance for the control of sensitive goods and technologies that could be used for the manufacture of conventional weapons. The discussions within its framework cover the harmonisation of weapon categories and dual-use goods. The cooperation here is intended to improve transparency in the export of weapons and dual-use goods. In the light of the terrorist attacks on 11 September its general meeting in Vienna in December 2001 extended the group's aims to cover the campaign against terrorism.