The Strategic Goods (Control) Act (SGCA) regulates the physical and electronic transfer as well as the brokering of strategic goods and strategic goods technology.
The strategic goods control list specifies the items that are subject to control under the SGCA. In addition to the strategic goods control list, the SGCA incorporates a 'catch-all' provision whereby all goods and technology that are intended or likely to be used for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) purposes will be subject to control.
The types of strategic goods transactions that are controlled under the SGCA are as follows:
- Export - refers to goods that go through the Customs checkpoints and exit the domestic channels of commerce within Singapore either by air, land or water.
- Re-export - refers to goods that are imported into Singapore and subsequently re-exported to other destination from Singapore. Re-export includes transshipped goods consigned to a local party.
- Transhipment - refers to goods that are removed from the conveyance on which they were brought into Singapore and are subsequently placed on the same or another conveyance for the purpose of taking them out of Singapore, where these acts are carried out on a through bill of lading, through airway bill or through manifest, without being consigned to a local party.
- Goods brought in transit - refers to goods that were brought from any country into Singapore and subsequently taken out from Singapore on the same conveyance on which they are brought into Singapore on a through bill of lading, through airway bill or through manifest, without being consigned to a local party. Goods brought in transit are not unloaded and remain on board the conveyance.
- Intangible transfer of technology (ITT) - refers to any electronic transmission of controlled strategic goods technology carried out in Singapore by electronic means (e.g. email, fax), or the act of making the controlled strategic goods technology available in Singapore on a computer, so that it becomes accessible to a person in a foreign country.
- Brokering - refers to the act of arranging or negotiating, or carrying out any act to facilitate the arrangement or negotiation of a contract for the acquisition or disposal of any controlled goods or technology if that person knows or has reason to believe that such a contract will or is likely to result in the removal of those goods and technology from one foreign country to another foreign country.
Any person who is engaged in any of the above transactions involving strategic goods or technology must abide by the permit/registration requirements under the SGCA.