Further memorandum from the Department
of Trade and Industry
On 20 February, 2007, I provided an interim
response to your letter of 7 February. In your original letter
you requested details of the methodology that the Department for
International Development uses to assess whether applications
for export licences meet Criterion 8 of the EU Code on Arms Exports
and a working example of its application, and also raised a number
of questions relating to the apparent disparity between refusals
on Criterion 8 grounds made by France and the UK.
I understand that the methodology used by DFID
to assess export licence applications under Criterion 8 was passed
to you on 1st March 2007, and that DFID have also provided you
with an explanation of the disparity in the number of refusals
between the UK and the French. However, I am now able to answer
your more detailed questions relating to the French Criterion
8 refusals. I apologise for the delay in reaching this stage.
Your first request was for details of the French
refusals and the reasoning behind them. My officials have been
in contact with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office concerning
the release of this information. The advice that we have received
is that this information has been provided by other Governments
to the UK in confidence under the relevant regime, and that it
therefore cannot be released by the UK Government to any third
parties. However, I hope that the more general information on
procedures in France recently provided by DFID may have helped
to clarify these matters, in principle at least.
Your second question was whether the UK or any
other Government had undercut these refusals by France. I should
start by explaining that many refusals never raise an issue of
undercut. It is necessary for the UK to consider that issue only
if a UK exporter applies, subsequent to a refusal by another regime
member, to export goods or technology which are essentially identical
to those which were the subject of the refusal. My officials have
checked the records thoroughly for the relevant time periods and
confirm that no such applications were lodged by UK exporters;
so in practice, the issue has never arisen from a UK perspective
and I can confirm that the UK has not undercut any of the French
Criterion 8 refusals.
Consultations concerning potential undercuts
are between the state that has refused and the country of intended
export. The UK would not be advised of any of these consultations
unless it were directly involved, and so does not hold the information
that you request concerning undercuts by other countries.
April 2007
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