Federal Act
on War Materiel
(War Materiel Act, WMA)

¹ The fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for en­force­ment and con­trols, and the pre­ven­tion or pro­sec­u­tion of of­fences may co­oper­ate with the re­spons­ible for­eign au­thor­it­ies as well as with in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions or agen­cies and co­ordin­ate in­vest­ig­a­tions provided:

a.

this is re­quired for the en­force­ment of this Act or cor­res­pond­ing for­eign reg­u­la­tions; and

b.

the for­eign au­thor­it­ies or in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions or agen­cies are bound by pro­fes­sion­al secrecy or cor­res­pond­ing du­ties of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity and guar­an­tee pro­tec­tion from in­dus­tri­al es­pi­on­age in their field of activ­ity.

² They may in par­tic­u­lar re­quest for­eign au­thor­it­ies and in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions or agen­cies to hand over data re­quired. In or­der to ob­tain such data they may dis­close data re­lat­ing to:

a.

the con­di­tion, quant­ity, des­tin­a­tion and place of use, pur­pose and re­cip­i­ent of goods, com­pon­ents, and in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty, in­clud­ing know-how, or rights thereto;

b.

per­sons in­volved in the man­u­fac­ture, sup­ply, broker­age or fund­ing of goods or com­pon­ents, or in the trans­fer of in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty, in­clud­ing know-how, or the grant­ing of rights thereto;

c.

fin­an­cial deal­ings re­lat­ing to the trans­ac­tion.

³ If the for­eign state holds a re­cip­roc­al right, the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies may in terms of para­graph 1 dis­close the data in terms of para­graph 2 with or without hav­ing been re­ques­ted to do so if the for­eign au­thor­ity provides an as­sur­ance that the data:

a.

will be pro­cessed only for pur­poses that fall with­in the terms of this Act; and

b.

will be used in ju­di­cial crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings only if it has been ob­tained in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions on in­ter­na­tion­al mu­tu­al as­sist­ance.

⁴ They may also dis­close the data to in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions or agen­cies sub­ject to the re­quire­ments of para­graph 3, whereby the re­quire­ment of a re­cip­roc­al right may be waived.

⁵ The pro­vi­sions on in­ter­na­tion­al mu­tu­al as­sist­ance in crim­in­al mat­ters re­main re­served.