CoCom

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COCOM redirects here. For information about the United States Combatant Commands, see Unified Combatant Command.

CoCom is an acronym for Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls. CoCom was established during the Cold War to put an embargo on Western exports to East Bloc countries.

CoCom had 17 member states: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States.

In addition there were a number of cooperating countries, such as Austria, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland.

It was revealed in 1987 that Japan's Toshiba Machine Company had supplied eight computer-guided propeller milling machines to the Soviet Union between 1982 and 1984; an action that violated the CoCom regulations. It was argued in the United States that this technology greatly improved the ability of Soviet submarines to evade detection, leading to a significant cost for the United States to improve its own technology once more. In 1988, Congress moved to sanction Toshiba and bar imports into the United States of Toshiba products.

CoCom ceased to function on March 31, 1994, and the then current control list or embargoed goods was retained by the member nations until the successor, the Wassenaar Arrangement, was established.