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An amended list of dual-use strategic goods has been released
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Notable changes include new entries in the field of electronics, semiconductors, and computers as well as for marine toxins
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The Department of Trade and Industry Strategic Trade Management Office says the changes are based on reviews carried out by multilateral export control regimes in 2021 and 2022
The Department of Trade and Industry-Strategic Trade Management Office (DTI-STMO) released an amended list of dual-use strategic goods subject to authorization prior to any regulated activities, such as exportation.
Strategic goods are products that, for security reasons or due to international agreements, are considered to be of military importance that their export is either subject to specific conditions or prohibited altogether. Dual-use goods refer to items, software and technology with both civil and military application, or can be used in developing, producing, handling, operating, maintaining, storing, detecting, identifying, or disseminating weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or their means of delivery.
Dual-use goods are part of the three annexes to the National Strategic Goods List (NSGL), which describes strategic goods subject to authorization. The two other annexes of the NSGL include military goods and nationally controlled goods.
In an email to PortCalls, STMO said most of the revisions found on Annex 2 are on the technical notes, numbering, editorial changes, and quotations.
Notable changes include the following: four new entries for marine toxins, namely brevetoxins, gonyautoxins, nodularins, and palytoxin; new entries in the field of electronics, semiconductors, and computers; control on digital computers has been adapted to the evolution of the technology; control on software specially designed for nucleic acid assemblers and synthesizers; addition of sub-orbital crafts and certain technology for manufacturing gas turbines (pressure gain combustion); technical notes as a local definition for “resolution”, “superalloys”, a new technical note for “direct-acting hydraulic pressing”, a new nota bene regarding gas turbine engines, and a definition of Gate-All-Around Field-Effect Transistor.
STMO said changes to Annex 2 are based on the result of reviews carried out by multilateral export control regimes (MECRs) in 2021 and 2022, specifically by the Australia Group and Wassenaar Arrangement.
The NSGL is pursuant to Republic Act No. 10697, or “An Act Preventing the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) by Managing the Trade in Strategic Goods, the Provision of Related Service, and for Other Purposes,” also known as Strategic Trade Management Act (STMA).
The STMA was signed into law in 2015 to comply with UN Security Council Resolution No. 1540.
The UN resolution “imposes binding obligations on all states to adopt legislation to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and their means of delivery, and establish appropriate domestic controls over related materials to prevent their illicit trafficking.”
The STMA aims to regulate the export, import, transit and transshipment, re-export and reassignment of strategic goods, software and technology and the provision of related services to prevent WMD proliferation.
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STMO is enforcing the STMA in phases, beginning with exports. Last January 1, STMO began implementing the requirement for authorization prior to the export of strategic goods.
STMO will gradually cover other types of shipments, including transit/transshipment, re-export/re-assignment, related services (e.g. transporting, brokering), and imports.
In July 2020, when STMO started implementing and accepting export authorization applications until the end of that year, the export value for strategic goods amounted to US$3.6 million, DTI said. In 2021, that figure jumped to $4.5 billion. The same amount was recorded in 2022.
Information systems formed 98% of strategic goods exports in 2021, while semiconductors and integrated circuits accounted for the rest.
There were $650,000 in new investments in the intangible technology transfer in 2021.
In February 2023, STMO launched the e-Licensing platform, which facilitates the issuance of certificates to industry stakeholders who are applying for cross-border transfer of strategic goods. – Roumina Pablo
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