When should I be suspicious
Checklist of Questions for Industry on when you should be suspicious about enquiries The Wassenaar Arrangement Participating States decided at the Plenary 2003 to publish the following non-exhaustive list of questions on the WA website. The intended use for the list is to provide a guide for companies in any export situation. The answers to the questions below will give guidance to when suspicion should be raised and a contact with national export licensing authorities might be advisable. 1. Do you know your customer? If not, is it difficult to find information about him/her? 3. Is the customer or the end-user tied to any military or governmental research body? 5. Does the customer seem familiar with the product and its performance characteristics or 7. Does the customer reject the customary installation, training or maintenance services 8. Is unusual packaging and labelling required? 9. Is the shipping route unusual? 11. Is the customer offering unusually profitable payment terms, such as a much higher
2. Is the customer or the end-user tied to the military or the defence industry?
4 If you have done business with the customer before - is this a usual request for them to
make? Does the product fit the business profile?
is there an obvious lack of technical knowledge?
6. Is the customer reluctant to provide an end-use statement or is the information insufficient
compared to other negotiations?
provided?
10. Does the customer order an excessive amount of spare parts or other items that are
related to the product, but not to the stated end-use?
price?
Other pointers which EGAD would add to the above list would include: requests for a lot of technical information can be suspicious, and also do not forget that we are not just talking about approaches from potential overseas customers – suspicious approaches can also come from people in the UK (eg brokers), so do not relax your guard just because the customer appears to be in the UK.