The Strategic Trade Management Committee has issued the Nationally Controlled Goods List (NCGL) of items that require Strategic Trade Management Office (STMO) authorization to import, export, transit, and transship.

The NCGL forms Annex 3 of the National Strategic Goods List (NSGL), which also includes military list (Annex 1) and dual-use list (Annex 2). Annexes 1 and 2 were released much earlier.

NCGL is a list of nationally controlled goods, which are strategic goods placed under unilateral controls for reasons of national security, foreign policy, anti-terrorism, crime control, and public safety.

Strategic goods refer to both military goods (for example, firearms) and dual-use goods. As the name suggests, dual-use goods not only have a civilian use; they can also be used to produce weapons of mass destruction, ballistic missiles or conventional military goods.

NCGL implements sanctioned items for export, import, transit and transshipment to and from specific countries identified by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as set out in the lists of UNSC documents.

NCGL currently covers export, transit, and transshipment of goods to and from North Korea and Iran.

Prohibited items for export to North Korea under the NCGL include hot cells; polymeric substances; metals, compounds, propellants and constituent chemicals for propellants; toxic chemicals, toxic chemical agent precursors, and chemicals for decontamination of chemical warfare agents.

Examples of prohibited items for import from North Korea include manufacturing machine and equipment; all flash X-ray machines and parts or components of pulsed power systems designed therefrom; cameras; metal and metal ores; and wood and articles of wood.

Prohibited items for import from Iran are also listed in Annex 1 of the NSGL, while prohibited exports are set out in the lists of UNSCR 2231 and its subsequent resolutions which could contribute to Iran’s nuclear-related program.

All export, transit, transshipment, and import of items in the NCGL that fall under exemption provisions will require STMO authorization prior to actual export, transit, transshipment, and import.

This is pursuant to the Strategic Trade Management Act (STMA), or Republic Act No. 10697 (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).

RA 10697 was signed in 2016 to comply with United Nations 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.”

RA 10697’s implementing rules and regulations was signed only in September 2018.

Under the law, traders, transport companies, and logistics service providers moving strategic goods need to be registered and licensed with the STMO, an office attached to the Department of Trade and Industry that establishes the systems for managing the trade of strategic goods pursuant to STMA.

The STMA regulates the export, import, transit and transshipment, re-export and reassignment of strategic goods, software and technology and the provision of related services in order to prevent WMD from proliferating.

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