What the export control permit regime covers
Operations related to export control in Georgia are governed by the Georgian Law on Licences and Permits. The list of permits in Article 24 of that law devotes a separate block to dual-use products: it provides for a permit for the import of dual-use products, a permit for their export, a permit for their transit, as well as a permit for brokering services in relation to dual-use products and a permit for technical assistance in relation to dual-use products. This structure means that each type of operation — import, export, transit, brokerage and technical assistance — requires its own permit, and one document does not substitute for another.
A distinction must also be drawn between permits and general licences: operations on dual-use products are carried out under permits, whereas activities related to military products are carried out under general licences. Both instruments sit in the same law, but their legal nature and issuing authority differ, and confusing them is one of the most common practical errors in this field.
General licences for military products and the issuing authority
Under Article 9(1) of the law, the manufacture and production of military products, the repair of military products (including modernization and on-site service), and trade in military products are carried out by a legal person or individual entrepreneur holding the right to conduct such activity, on the basis of the respective general licence. These general licences — those defined by items 10(1)-10(3) of Article 6 of the law — are issued by the Ministry of Defence of Georgia on the basis of a recommendation of the Ministry's standing military-technical commission. The recommendation is an indispensable legal basis: without it, an application cannot succeed in advance.
Documentation for the general licence application
To obtain a general licence, the seeker must submit, together with the general documentation defined by the law: data on registration in the register of entrepreneurs and non-commercial (non-profit) legal persons; the list of persons who have direct contact with military products — indicating name, surname, date of birth, profession, workplace, identity card number and place of residence, accompanied by certificates on criminal record/deprivation of rights, on conviction for the crime provided by the Law on Weapons, on the absence of registration with a narcological facility, and on mental condition; the list of buildings and structures, with addresses, in which the activity is to be carried out; a document confirming compliance with fire safety norms in the respective building; a document confirming the provision of compliance with technical safety norms of the building; a document confirming proper protection and security of the building; and the recommendation of the standing military-technical commission.
The law also identifies the issuing bodies for these documents: the fire safety document is issued by the respective divisions of the Emergency Management Service — a state sub-agency within the purview of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; the technical safety norms and the authorized person issuing the compliance document are determined by the technical regulation provided by the Law on Weapons; and the protection document is issued by the subject (service) holding the authority to protect the respective building. For the applicant this means collecting documents sequentially, from different authorities.
The types of general licences and their substance
The respective items of Article 6 of the law regulate the military-products general licences separately: the general licence for the manufacture and production of military products; the general licence for the repair of military products (including modernization and on-site service); and the general licence for trade in military products. This division means that one and the same company that sometimes produces, sometimes repairs and sometimes trades in military products may need several general licences — one for each line of activity. The holder of a general licence is, in the form defined by the law, a legal person or individual entrepreneur holding the right to the activity in question.
It is also noteworthy that in the application documentation the law pays particular attention to personality: the list of persons with direct contact with military products must contain not only names and dates of birth but also profession, workplace, identity card number and place of residence. This approach serves to ensure that every person acting in this controlled field is identified and transparent to the state.
The brokering licence for military products
Article 9(3) of the law regulates separately the licence for brokering services in relation to military products. This licence is issued by the Ministry of Defence of Georgia. The seeker and the holder of the licence may only be a resident as defined by the Georgian Tax Code — which means that a non-resident cannot hold this licence. To obtain the licence, the recommendation of the Ministry of Defence's standing military-technical commission must be submitted together with the general documentation.
Why correct qualification of each operation matters
In the export control regime it is essential that the movement of products across the border, or the provision of intermediary or technical services, be covered by the appropriate permit or general licence before the operation takes place. For dual-use products the law separately names import, export, transit, brokering services and technical assistance — therefore, for a specific transaction it must first be determined which operation is being carried out, and only then which permit is required. A qualification error — for example, treating as transit an operation that is in fact export — creates the risk of violating the permit regime.
From a practical standpoint, a company planning an operation involving controlled products should determine three parameters in advance: the category of the product (dual-use or military), the type of operation (import, export, transit, brokering, technical assistance), and its own status (residence, for the brokering licence). The correct determination of these three parameters decides whether the respective authority will issue the document and what documentation the application will require.