MEXICO FORMALLY ENTERS THE NUCLEAR SUPPLIERS GROUP

• Mexico becomes the 47th member of the NSG, a group of nuclear supplier countries that seeks to implement controls for nuclear and nuclear-related exports to ensure their use for peaceful purposes.

• Mexico strengthens its firm commitment to disarmament and non-proliferation; the Mexican export industry improves its ability to continue developing cutting-edge technology.

• The Mexican export control system is improved by adopting international best practices that make the transfer of materials, goods and nuclear technology more secure.

The Mexican government is pleased to announce that it has completed the process for joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) after having received the unanimous support of the 46 countries that participate in the export control system for nuclear material, nuclear dual-use goods and related technologies.

The NSG is an informal, non-legally binding group created in 1974 to contribute to nuclear non-proliferation by implementing guidelines to regulate the export of nuclear equipment and related software, technologies and dual-use products.

By joining this group, the Mexican export industry becomes more secure and more competitive, and strengthens its industrial platform in order to continue the controlled development of cutting-edge technology in sectors that use nuclear elements such as power generation and nuclear medicine, among others.

In 2011, Mexico exported over a billion dollars of dual-use goods on the NSG control lists such as steel, nuclear-grade graphite, steam generators , microprocessors, capacitors, aluminum alloys and high-specification drilling equipment.

Membership in both this group and the Wassenaar Arrangement (January 2012) helps ensure that the transfer of dual-use goods and technology and conventional weapons and their components are not diverted for non-peaceful uses while also contributing to the safe trade of these products and technology. Mexico is also currently seeking admission to the Australia Group, which controls exports of chemicals and biological agents. As a member of these groups, Mexico will be safer and more competitive.

Admission to the international export control systems for dual-use, high tech goods related to the chemical and peaceful nuclear industries opens a new dimension of Mexico's development in strategic areas of cutting-edge technology.

The other NSG members are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea (Republic of), Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain , Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States. Further information can be found at: http://www.nuclearsuppliersgroup.org/Leng/default.htm