This Working Group was active from July 1989 until March 1999 and was initially chaired by Wisse Dekker (Philips), who was then succeeded by Umberto Agnelli (Fiat), Jan Timmer and Cor Boonstra (Philips).

The Working Group followed developments in COCOM (the Coordinating COMmittee for Multilateral Export Control). COCOM was set up after World War II as a necessary measure to cover the massive transfer of military technology from the USA to Western Europe. Gradually, military technology became dependent on developments in the civilian industrial communities. This accounts for the inclusion of numerous dual-use goods and technologies in the industrial list of COCOM. At its inception, ERT was asking for a drastic reduction of items on this list, by restricting the listing of embargoed goods and/or technologies to those products which were truly strategic, thus creating a well-functioning international Export Control Regime for dual-use products and technologies.

In two ERT reports (“European Industry and COCOM” and “Towards a Single Export Control System”) ERT stressed the need to complete the Internal Market for dual-use goods and technologies, listed the essential elements of an efficient system of export controls and offered detailed advice on how to achieve these goals.

The ERT Export Controls Group joined forces with other European, US and Japanese groups to prepare a general industrial view on the “New forum”, intended to replace COCOM in April 1994 (“Export Controls Dual-Use Goods and Technologies – A Contribution of Worldwide Industry”).

On 12 February 1997, ERT sent a letter to Member State governments as well as to Industry Commissioner Bangemann and EU Trade Commissioner Brittan, raising urgent questions on Dual Use and Export Controls. In January 1998, ERT hosted a meeting of representatives of Member State governments and European Industry experts in order to prepare a European point of view in preparation of a TABD expert group meeting which was to be held in November 1997. Estimates showed that 80% of the trade flows worth some $ 20 billion would have been affected if just 10% of the goods on the Wassenaar list were to be freed of all controls.

Since UNICE (now BusinessEurope) and TABD work on this subject overlapped with the work remit of ERT, the ERT Working Group was closed down in March 1999, and its entire work programme handed over to UNICE.