“This is desirable given the security situation in Israel, the Palestinian Territories and the broader region,” say trade and foreign ministers.
Excuse my French but about god damn time
This is a step in the right direction. I hope that the individual assessment will be giving dual use goods proper scrutiny, in particular after the court decision regarding F-35 components.
Unfortunately we see in Germany that “individual decisions of a restrictive export policy” are consistently claimed but then any access to information about the decision process, including the assessment of legality of such exports are denied on the basis of them being “individual decisions”.
We will see what this means in practice in the Netherlands, once implemented.
As for the EU it is a bit difficult to find a comprehensive list of items the EU considers to be dual-use and subject to restrictions, in particular as there seems to be different restriction regimes regarding different countries.
I found this List of High Priority Battlefield Items (February 2024) regarding Russias invasion of Ukraine. It covers all components of integrated circuits and many electrical components such as capacitors and transistors, microphones, radio equipment, cameras, electrical plugs and sockets… I think this can give an example of how broad of a classification dual-use goods can be, if applied with scrutiny.
I agree a step in the right direction, and I think better late then never. But I think it’s more a message than anything else. “The Dutch government will now assess exports of military equipment and dual-use goods to Israel on a case-by-case basis, …”
