The Legal Status of Digital Signatures for Export in the United Kingdom

How to eSign a document: digital signature legality for Export in United Kingdom

on the 8th of december 2021 the uk presented a package of measures designed to update the uk's export control regime now licensed applications will be assessed from right now against a new set of criteria there are also updates on military end use and china is mentioned as well i welcome you to another video by customs manager here in this channel we look at all things customs and global trade import export transit special customs procedures to save you money free trade agreement and of course export controls and if you like this kind of stuff then subscribe like and of course share this video with other like-minded people so more people get to discuss debate and inform about the matters that are important to your business let's go so the uk implements an export control regime for military dual use and other sensitive goods so items and technologies and they have a dual objective on one hand to promote security whilst facilitating responsible experts and with these controls that the uk has the country can ensure that goods exported from the united kingdoms do not add to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and do not lead to a threatening buildup of conventional weapons and with this quite strict licensing regime the uk can then decide who has access to the uk's uh defense and military those sensitive technologies and goods moreover of course export controls from the united kingdom prevent the use of strategic um items where they are not intended to and that's good for those producing those items notably the military and the defense security industry because the legitimate global trade in military equipment and technology as well as to abuse items of course is important it enables governments to protect our citizens to preserve the laws and security of the land and prevent criminals from getting the hands on these weapons and of course they defend against external threat as well so in this way the export controls legislation supports the defense and military industry and of course the security industry by promoting legitimate use legitimate trade of these items that are subject to strategic controls but of course export controls evolve and there are new um ways to conduct warfare there are new security and defense threats and of course there are dangers to overall citizen security and that means the export control licenses regime also has to change and so in the december 2021 update the uk revised the so-called strategic criteria for export controls and these are as you may know formerly known as the strategic export licensing criteria and the these are these criteria against which licenses are assessed in the uk and these criteria are now applied or have always been applied um now in the revised version from immediate effect for items and goods and software and technology that are on the dual use and military lists of the united kingdom and that concerns the export the transfer the trade so the brokering and trafficking and also the transit or trans shipment as it is known in some parts of the world of these strategic items and associated technology and so on and this also applies to the concept of technical assistance that you may be aware of and also the services related to these items and if these services are subject to control then these criteria will be used ingly now i should mention that these new revised criteria these uh eight criterias that have now been amended um they depend not on they're not applied um statically on on everything but they depend on a case by case basis right when a license application is made the customs authorities know the dit so the department of international trade export control the authorities that's right they are going to look at this and say well which criteria applies here um and and it's not a general consideration [Music] so the uk is also on record of saying so just to um and these uh concerns here that they will not refuse a license on what could be a hypothetical threat or or a pure speculative spread what could be in what situation is going to be a real concern that they're gonna that they're gonna assess your licenses with and if there's a real concern they might refuse a license now as i mentioned there are some other changes there is an extension to the catch all provisions for military end use um and the and this is because the uk feels that the eu interpretation of military enqueues is not sufficient anymore and that is the second change that we will see in 2022 and that is the definition of military entries so currently as you know also on the eu legislation the control can only be applied to the export of otherwise non-controlled items so this is the catch-all provision which are intended for the use and components for the productions of equipment of military equipment and in an embargo destination and this does not allow the uk fields to address the current threat of national security international peace and security are human rights issues that have been arising um by the use of non-listed military items or items in general um in the use of not only the military but also the police and security forces and if that happens if if these non-controlled uh items are used for gross international human rights violations then that should be prohibited so now the new definition targets not only the military but also paramilitary security forces and police forces in destinations that are subject to an amzenbach so this will happen in 2022 uh there'll be a amendment of what's known as military end use in the export control order of 2008 and that will remove the limitations that constitutes military end use and as always and this only applies of course where businesses have been informed by the department of international trade so these controls will only be imposed where the government informs an exporter that the proposed export is intended for a military entrance the control would only be applied where the government informs the exporter of the proposed export or may where it is intended or known that the military will use um this in an illegal way in an above destiny embargo destination where that is the case then uh licenses would be refused and you wouldn't be able to export and then we have exceptions to that rule of course as always to minimize the impact on legitimate trade obviously for medical supplies and equipment food and closing and other consumer goods there are exceptions so the hospitals can still be delivered uh there will be medical services that are still that are still there now i mentioned china so china is also subject to military controls and that is where anomalies and inconsistencies in the uk export control regime have been found in relation to china and that also has its origin in the eu because there is a weird arms embargo legislation that the eu has where member states could not really agree with a long time ago to put china under an export contra troll um regime and therefore there's this kind of fudge legislation and the uk now feels that it could change that and so it now adds china to the list of destinations subject to military and use controls and this will of course not change the extent of the partial arms and bible in china so what we conclude from all this well export control in 2021 um is is has seen only minor changes obviously there's been the whole eu changes with the emergence of the open general export license for the eu but that's really only already been done in 2020 so we're only looking at 2022 here and taken together these measures these three key measures are certainly a step in the right direction when it comes to export but recall that the export control law at least into use goods of the uk is kind of frozen in time because it's retained legislation from the eu that dates back to 20 2009 the eu has of course amended its export control legislation in 2021 and that amendment has not happened in the uk so we're still with the lists and the rules of um 20 uh 2009 and that is now being changed so we see divergence between the expo controller of the uk that means of great britain and and the eu don't forget that northern ireland has adopted or has to adopt ing to the protocol northern ireland the eu legislation so nevertheless uh the amendments uh that are have already been enforced now and will be enforced in 2022 they strengthen the uk's ability to prevent export that might otherwise be directly or indirectly used to facilitate human rights violation and that is especially for destinations subject to military and use controls of course the question is what happens to those human rights abuses where the destination is not a military and use control but that's a subject for another video so i hope you like this if you like this video and this kind of information and discussion then please give it a like and then share it with others that might be interested in the topic as well and of course hit that subscribe button we appreciate it because then we can make more videos like this hope you like this thank you for watching and see you next time