As a manufacturer of aerospace and defence components, assemblies and kits of parts, Middlesex Aerospace is a highly valued partner in the global supply chain for many leading names in the industry. Our skills and expertise delivers huge opportunities to export products to both domestic and foreign markets. But we must also ensure we comply with legislation that regulates how we trade across borders. So, improving our knowledge of export controls is vital.
The reason behind export controls
Most countries around the world trade freely or via agreement with each other. In some cases however, trade is either limited or subject to restrictions. Sometimes trade is forbidden entirely. Usually, this is for reasons covering national security or part of political foreign policy. For example, a country presents a hostile threat, perhaps by its regime or through encouraging terrorism. So the supply of certain products or services is not allowed. Such controls come in different forms. A blanket embargo applied to North Korea is an obvious example. But more often these restrictions are highly detailed and differ from one sovereign state to another. They can even at times apply to a country which is otherwise deemed a ‘friend’ to the UK.
This all means we must be continually vigilant. We must ensure our high-quality precision engineering services are not utilised by individuals, businesses or countries that are subject to restrictions. It’s a task we take extremely seriously at an employee level and through supporting them via our business processes. So, we are helping our team improve their knowledge of export controls via specialist courses run by the Government’s Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU).
Help From The ECJU
The ECJU provide invaluable help in ensuring we avoid inadvertently supplying our services in contravention of controls in place. Their courses improve our knowledge around aerospace and defence export controls. With their guidance we determine how to provide our services to others, quickly and effectively. The time we have spent with experts at the ECJU has been of huge value, keeping us up-to-date with developments in export controls, and we are more confident than ever that Middlesex Aerospace will continue to grow as a responsible manufacturer of precision engineering services to the aerospace and defence sectors.
