S.L. 365.13 Art. 2Interpretation.

(1) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires:

"Act" means the National Interest (Enabling Powers) Act;

''broker'' means any natural or legal person engaged in brokering activities; ''brokering activities'' means activities of persons and entities -

(a) negotiating or arranging transactions that may involve the transfer of items listed in the Manual from any country, including Malta, to any other country; or

(b) who buy, sell or arrange the transfer of such items that are in their ownership from any country, including Malta, to any other country; "country" includes territory;

"Director" means the Director responsible for trade and includes any officer designated or authorised by the Director to act for a purpose or class of purposes of these regulations: Provided that for the purposes of article 30(3) of the Customs Ordinance, the Minister or the Director shall act in consultation with the Minister responsible for Customs, or such other authority, head of department or person appointed for the purpose by such Minister; "essential component" means the barrel, the frame, the receiver, including both upper and lower receivers, where applicable the slide, the cylinder, the bolt or the breech block, which, being separate objects, are included in the category of the firearms on which they are or are intended to be mounted; "export", unless the context otherwise requires, means export from Malta, and includes the transmission of software or technology by fax, telephone or other electronic media (except that oral transmission of technology by telephone is included only where the technology is contained in a document the relevant part of which is read out over the telephone, or is described over the telephone in such a way as to achieve substantially the same result

*These regulations have been transferred to Cap. 653. Vide S.L. 653.04 and Act XXXV of 2025. as if it had been so read);

"export declaration" means the act whereby a person indicates in the prescribed form and manner the wish to place military equipment under an export procedure; "exporter" means any natural or legal person on whose behalf an export declaration is made, that is to say the person who, at the time when the declaration is accepted, holds the contract with the consignee in the third country and has the power for determining the sending of the item out of the customs territory of Malta. If no export contract has been concluded or if the holder of the contract does not act on its own behalf, the power for determining the sending of the item out of the customs territory of Malta shall be decisive; "firearm" means any portable barrelled weapon that expels, is designed to expel or may be converted to expel a shot, bullet or projectile by the action of a combustible propellant, unless it is excluded from that definition for one (1) of the reasons listed in Part III of Annex I of Council Directive 91/447/EEC of 18 June 1991 on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons. Firearms are classified in Part II of Annex I. An object shall be considered to be capable of being converted to expel a shot, bullet or projectile by the action of a combustible propellant if:

(a) it has the appearance of a firearm; and

(b) as a result of its construction or the material from which it is made, it can be so converted; "import" and "export" in relation to a vessel, submersible vehicle or aircraft includes the taking into or out of Malta of the vessel, submersible vehicle or aircraft notwithstanding that the vessel, submersible vehicle or aircraft is conveying goods or passengers, and whether or not it is moving under its own power; and cognate expressions shall be construed accordingly;

"items in transit" means items which only pass through the þ territory of Malta, that is those which are not assigned a customs-approved treatment or use other than the external transit procedure or which are merely placed in a free zone or a free warehouse and where no record of them has to be kept in an approved stock record;

"military equipment" means any used or unused items, including software and technology, which are listed in the First Schedule;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for trade; "normal commercial journey" means a journey providing transport services in the ordinary course of business; "person" means any natural or legal person; "scheduled journey" means one of a series of journeys which are undertaken between the same two places and which together amount to a systematic service operated in such manner that its benefits are available to members of the public from time to time seeking to take advantage of it; "surface effect vehicle" means any air cushion vehicle (whether side wall or skirted) and any vehicle using the wing-in-ground effect for positive lift; "vessel" includes any ship, surface effect vehicle, vessel of small waterplane area or hydrofoil, and the hull or part of the hull of a vessel.

(2) Any reference in these regulations to time after an event is a reference to a period of that length of time beginning on the day after that event.

(3) In these regulations, except where the context otherwise requires, any reference to -

(a) a numbered regulation is a reference to the regulation in these regulations which is so numbered;

(b) a numbered subregulation is a reference to the subregulation which is so numbered in the regulation where the reference occurs.