Export Controls Training: General or Bespoke? - By: David Hayes

What type of export controls training is most appropriate depends upon a number of factors, including the training need which is being addressed, e.g. export controls training to update experienced compliance staff on latest developments or general awareness training for staff not in a compliance function. Counter-intuitively, the former may be best met by attendance a commercially arranged seminar, whilst the latter may best be addressed by bespoke export controls training.

What are the main advantages of bespoke export controls training? The simple fact that the training is bespoke is an important discriminator. Export controls training developed for a general audience, especially if confined to, say, military export controls, is not the optimum solution if your company manufactures only personal protective equipment and has issues around end-use controls and how to differentiate between military and dual-use items. Any benefit of general export controls training delivered against such a requirement is further eroded by the understandable, and in many cases highly sensible, reluctance of attendees to ask awkward questions in a public forum, which they can, of course, ask in a bespoke, in-house environment.

Export controls training can be a dry topic and selecting a good trainer is vitally important. Do you know whether your proposed trainer is a regular speaker at export control events and seminars? Do you know anyone who has attended and could provide you with independent feedback on the quality of his or her export controls training, both in terms of technical knowledge and of delivery?

What is the cost/benefit of the export controls training to your organisation? Is it more important to your compliance programme to have one manager attend a conference to update knowledge or to have thirty engineers given a level of awareness sufficient to improve risk identification and mitigation, if each of these options costs approximately the same?

This is not a prescription advocating one approach to export controls training over another. The reality is that many export control professionals, both in industry and in consultancy, perform both types of training, i.e. they speak at large seminars and they deliver in-house training, with the only difference being that those in industry usually only deliver in-house training to their own companies.

Larger seminars have an important role to play in export controls training and have some advantages over in-house export controls training, especially in so far as networking is concerned. The export controls world is small, even globally, and many people know their counterparts in companies around the world. This provides a large pool of talent and expertise as well as an invaluable, informal forum for resolving problems quickly.

In an ideal world, both types of export controls training would be used as appropriate. It is even more important in times of recession to ensure that training and skills are updated and budgets are not cut, since a number of factors increase the risk of export control violations being detected in such economic conditions. These include: a lower total number of shipments in the global economy, making any single shipment more likely to be checked as a percentage of the total and a change in the patterns of violations displayed by companies to a paradigm in which identifying high risk shipments is easier for regulators.

The export control laws of the United States are the most stringent and complex in the world. Dealing with United States companies without an appreciation of these controls can result in unforeseen delays and costs and limit your ability to market your products to other countries.

The company was established to provide rapid, professional advice and assistance to companies currently affected by export controls or who are considering entering the market place but are unsure of the commercial and regulatory implications.For further information regarding export controls training, please visit our website at http://www.davidhayes-exportcontrols.com.