Top 10 Areas for Congressional Action on the Arms Trade Treaty in 2016

Ted R. Bromund, heritage.org

Image from, with comment: The United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs has just released a publication titled “Arms Trade Treaty: Signature and Ratification.” This brochure acts as a step by step guide that describes the procedures that States must follow in order to sign, ratify, accept, approve, or accede to the Arms Trade Treaty.

Excerpt:

The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which Congress has rightly opposed, entered into force on December 24, 2014. The U.S. signed the ATT on September 25, 2013, but the Administration has yet to transmit the treaty to the Senate. ...

Congress should resolutely continue to oppose ratification of the ATT and should act to ensure that any decisions taken in Cancun do not result in the U.S. financing treaty activities.

The Issues at Stake ...

8. Resist public diplomacy pressure. The ATT has been ratified by 79 nations, with almost no support from major nations outside Europe, and all but 27 of its ratifications coming from Europe or small, impoverished islands. Many of the remaining ratifications are from equally impoverished African nations. An effort to assess national export and import control systems for ATT compliance has found that only 19 nations outside Europe are willing even to provide public information about their systems.[4] Both the Administration and Congress should emphasize that rhetorical support for the ATT vastly exceeds either the practical desire or the ability to live up to its requirements and that violations of the ATT by its signatories are already common. ...

[4] Stimson Center, “Arms Trade Treaty Baseline Assessment Project,” http://www.armstrade.info/country-profiles/ (accessed January 12, 2016).