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Netherlands. 2010 ‘National Laws, Regulations and Decrees - Transit.’ National Report of the Netherlands on its Implementation of the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (UNPoA), p. 5. New York, NY: Permanent Mission of the Netherlands to the United Nations. 1 January

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National Laws, Regulations and Decrees - Transit

Transit through the Netherlands is defined as: the transport of goods that only enter the territory of the Netherlands in order to be transported through this territory to a destination outside the territory of the Netherlands. Although under international law "territory" would include the Netherlands' territorial waters and it's airspace, by exempting these parts of the territory in the transit controls, the scope of these controls is limited to those transactions that actually enter Netherlands' "soil".

Since August 1st 2008 the controls on the export from and transit through the Netherlands of military goods is based on the General Customs Law, the Decree on strategic goods and the Implementation order on strategic goods. The goal of the transit controls is for the government to get better insight into the type and size of transit transactions of military goods through the Netherlands and to be able to act when a transaction is deemed undesirable.

In principle, all transit transactions of military goods through the Netherlands now require a license from the Dutch Export Control Authorities, similar to the license requirement in case of export. Exempted from the transit-license requirement are transit transactions of military goods originating from or destined for Australia, Japan, New-Zealand, Switzerland, Member States of the European Union or NATO allies. However, whilst exempted from the transit-license requirement, for these transactions there is still a notification requirement.

A notification needs to contain information on: the amount of goods, their final destination, their means of transport, their location of exit from the Netherlands, the name of the person filing the notification, and if this person is not the owner of the weapons, the name of the owner is also required. If present, the received export-licence from the relevant authority in the country of export must be presented.

The Dutch government may decide to install an "ad-hoc" license-requirement based on the information acquired through the notification if there is uncertainty about the legitimacy of the export from the country of origin, and thus transit through the Netherlands.

Furthermore, some transactions are also exempted from both the license and reporting requirement. These are transit transactions of defence material owned by and destined for Dutch or NATO troops, Joint Force Command Brunssum or the European Space Agency, or transactions of military vehicles owned or used by an army with the purpose of storing the vehicles or for using them in events such as state visits, naval reviews or aviation demonstrations.

ID: Q1711

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