Multilateral Export Control
There are five multilateral export control regimes in place which coordinate national export control mechanisms and prevent the proliferation of technology of possible military use to states interested in acquiring weapons.
Zangger Committee (ZC) – nuclear technology
Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)
Australia Group (AG) – chemical and biological agents
Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)
Wassenaar Arrangement – conventional weapons and dual-use goods.
Austria participates in all five export control regimes and implements its commitments through the Foreign Trade Act.
National Export Controls on Conventional Arms and Weapons
According to Austrian law there is a differentiation between war material, as stipulated in the Austrian War Material Act (Federal Law Gazette I 540/1977 as amended by Federal Law Gazette I 50/2005).and exhaustively listed in the relevant regulation, and equipment of the Common Military List not listed as war material, governed by the 2005 Foreign Trade Act (Federal Law Gazette I 50/2005). Licensing authorities are the Ministry of the Interior for war material and the Ministry for Economics and Labour for all other equipment of the Common Military List. The Ministry for European and International Affairs assesses each export licence application on a case-by-case basis against the relevant legal provisions and the Council Common Position (2008/944/CFSP of 8 December 2008) defining common rules governing control of exports of military technology and equipment.
Regarding more detailed information and concrete export data, please follow the relevant link in the German version (Außenpolitik-weitereThemen-Abrüstung-Exportkontrolle).
Arms Trade Treaty
The negative consequences of irresponsible trade in arms on the stability, security and development of countries as well as the respect for human rights are undisputed. Austria thus strongly supports the concerted effort of the international community of working towards a legally binding and universal Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). After the conclusion of preliminary work by the Group of Governmental Experts in 2008 an Open Ended Working Group was established by the UN General Assembly and consequently held two sessions in New York in March and July 2009. In December 2009 UN GA Resolution 64/48 established a concrete time frame for the elaboration of an Arms Trade Treaty.
On the basis of an EU Council decision, UNIDIR organized seminars and workshops in different parts of the world, aiming to strengthen world-wide support for an ATT. In the framework of this project two-day conferences were held in Dakar, Mexico City, Kuala Lumpur, Amman and Addis Ababa, in order to promote the participation of all stakeholders in the discussion on an ATT, integrate national and regional contributions into the international process under way, and to identify the scope and implication of a possible treaty on the trade in arms. Participants in these regional seminars included inter alia representatives from countries in the region, international and local NGOs, the media and local/regional industry. The regional conference for Wider Europe, as well as the concluding event, was held in Vienna in February 2010.
