The primary challenge Malta faces in strategic export control is also its greatest advantage: location. A cursory understanding of Maltese history shows that these islands have been a prime trading route for thousands of years and, today, nearly one-third of the world’s ship traffic passes through or near Malta.
Legitimate trade is, of course, an important component of international relations. The high volume of trade flows means that Maltese authorities must use a risk-based approach in order to meet the obligations of national and international trade legislation.
What we see with the increased amount of international sanctions are more detailed methods to control many different forms of trade and economic engagement to pursue foreign policy objectives.
Sanctions can target human rights violations, terrorist financing, illicit nuclear programmes, the misappropriation of funds and natural resources belonging to a State, as well as including sector-wide trade restrictions.
These restrictions and prohibitions are specifically tailored to achieve policy objectives, and exist as an encouragement to the targeted individuals, bodies or States to increase diplomatic dialogue to resolve the issue at hand. In our enforcement of strategic export controls to reduce illicit trade and promote security in the central Mediterranean we regularly work with regional partners such as Tunisia, Egypt, Italy, and Libya. Our efforts to stop sanctions violators and to implement export controls consistently, everywhere, every time, culminated in the creation of the Central Mediterranean Security Initiative.
…a truly rigorous implementation of all national and international sanctions legislation
The US Embassy in Malta co-hosted this event with us and we invited key participants from the region to discuss cases we are all facing, and to increase the multilateral cooperation needed to combat transnational crime. Our discussions focused on the need for us, as a region, to take more ownership over the many challenges our region faces: from the smuggling and trafficking of human beings to drugs, counterfeit goods and more.
The 19 members of the Sanctions Monitoring Board come together to discuss cases from a sanctions perspective. We have already had many successes as a board, and more are sure to come. The following example is one of a number of wins the board has achieved for Malta.
We worked with Malta Customs officials in the context of smuggling and trafficking activities and detected a pattern of transhipments containing outboard motors and inflatable vessels that were transiting through Malta to Libya. We believed that smugglers in Libya were going to receive these goods, as the shipments contained no real information about the end use in Libya, and the serial numbers on some of the motors had been deliberately filed off.
We stopped these transhipments using EU legislation which required EU Member States to prevent business that could contribute towards violent actions in Libya, including the use of force against civilians.
This move cut off a supply route of these goods to Libya. An average of 2,800 containers a month flow from around the world to Libya transiting through Malta presents a challenge but also a great opportunity: to control the flow of goods and do our part to undermine the business model of smugglers of people and traffickers of human beings.
This strategic win against the illicit business model of a group of smugglers resulted in the Minister for Foreign Affairs formally inviting the High Representative of the European Union to ask our fellow EU Member States to join us in this initiative.
EU Member States unanimously agreed on July 17, 2017, to adopt Council Regulation 1325 of 2017. This regulation clearly states that “the sale, supply, transfer or export, directly or indirectly” of identified outboard motors and inflatable vessels to any person, entity or body in Libya, or for use in Libya, necessarily requires a prior authorisation from a national competent authority before the transaction can proceed.
In Malta’s case, this would require an authorisation of the board which I chair, and I can proudly state that since the adoption of this legislation by the EU, we have not received a single application for the export of these goods, nor have any such shipments been intercepted by Malta Customs.
The Sanctions Monitoring Board carries out this sort of work both nationally and regionally, and the position of the board is one where information sharing is part of its regular work in order to achieve our goal: a truly rigorous implementation of all national and international sanctions legislation.
We have conducted outreach efforts with various other entities in Malta, including the Malta Bankers’ Association, remote gaming operators, financial advisory firms and real estate agents and we are continually planning more as part of our strategy of engagement.
The Sanctions Monitoring Board may be contacted at sanctions.mftp@gov.mt.
Neville Aquilina is chairman of the Sanctions Monitoring Board.