FRENCH EXPORT CONTROL…TOUGHER CONTROL AND FINES : urging to improve your procedures and internal control !
Date : 16 February 2017
The French Decree 2017-151 dated Feb 8th 2017 strengthens – in a context of anti-terrorism- the power of the agencies of control so that they may, in case of failure or defaulting of the organization and internal control processes of exporters of military equipment or of suppliers of products in relation with Defense
- Issue summons or even decide of the suspension, modification or abrogation of existing Export Licences
- And enforce (by the Sanction Committee, new creation of this Decree) financial fines.
Companies operating in this economic sector have no other option (but deciding to take enormous legal, financial and commercial risks) to set up a perennial and competent (i.e with permanent education) dedicated organization of operations coupled with an internal control concerned with compliance to this legal environment.
One may recall that in conjunction with both the dual goods regulations (the frontier of which with military equipment is so thin sometimes that it is dangerously subject to interpretation) and the Customs law, the potential toxicity of which is well known, this set of regulations (reinforced by the impact of this Decree on the provisions of the French code of Defense) now constitutes a multi-layer legal tool, the dangerous character of which is a challenge not only for the top management (authorized signors) and heads of Compliance but should also raise some concern among Supply-Chain and HR directors.