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December 23, 2016
The Arms Trade Treaty
On December 9, 2016, President Barack Obama transmitted
the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to the Senate. The United
States signed the ATT, which is a multilateral treaty of
unlimited duration, on September 25, 2013. The treaty's
objectives are to [e]stablish the highest possible common
international standards for regulating or improving the
regulation of the international trade in conventional arms
... and to [p]revent and eradicate the illicit trade in
conventional arms and prevent their diversion. (Unless
otherwise noted, all quotes in this product are taken from
the treaty text or the article-by-article analysis submitted by
Secretary of State John Kerry to the Senate).
Although governments and non-governmental advocates
has discussed concepts similar to the ATT for decades, a
2004 speech by the UK Foreign Secretary is widely
credited with providing critical support for the treaty. In
December 2006, the UN General Assembly (UNGA)
requested the UN Secretary-General to form a group of
governmental experts to
examine ... the feasibility, scope and draft
parameters for a comprehensive, legally binding
instrument establishing common international
standards for the import, export and transfer of
conventional arms
and provide a report to the UNGA. Citing the group's
report, the UNGA decided in December 2009 to convene a
conference that would elaborate a legally binding
instrument on the highest possible common international
standards for the transfer of conventional arms.
After the first meeting of this conference, which took place
in July 2012, was unable to reach consensus on a treaty
text, the General Assembly decided in December 2012 to
convene another conference in March 2013. A draft
submitted to the 2012 conference by the conference
president served as the basis for the discussion. On March
28, 2013, the conference president determined that there
was no consensus on a revised treaty text and reported this
fact to the UNGA.
An April 2013 UNGA vote approved the treaty in its
negotiated form. Only Iran, North Korea, and Syria voted
against the treaty; notable abstentions included Russia,
China, and India. The ATT opened for signature on June 3,
2013, and entered into force on December 24, 2014. As of
November 28, 2016, 130 states had signed the treaty, which
has 87 states-parties. The United States participated in the
drafting of the ATT and voted for it in the UNGA.
The United States has an extensive system for controlling
the transfers of defense articles and dual-use items and the
ATT would likely require no significant changes to U.S.
policy, regulations, or law. According to the President's
transmittal message, U.S. national control systems and
practices to regulate the international transfer of
conventional arms already meet or exceed ATT
requirements.
$S S.ope
The ATT regulates trade in conventional weapons between
and among countries. It does not affect sales or trade in
weapons among private citizens within a country. The
treaty obligates states-parties engaged in the international
arms trade to establish effective national control systems to
review, authorize, and document the import, export,
brokering, transit, and transshipment of conventional
weapons, and ammunition. Such control systems are also to
cover weapons parts and components when transferred in
a form that provides the capability to assemble a complete
weapon. The ATT does not cover exports of replacement
parts.
The ATT covers the following weapons:
* battle tanks,
* armored combat vehicles,
* large-caliber artillery systems,
* combat aircraft,
* attack helicopters,
* warships,
* missiles and missile launchers, and
* small arms and light weapons.
States-parties' definitions of the first seven categories of
weapons must, at a minimum, include items covered by the
descriptions in the UN Register of Conventional Arms. For
the last category, such definitions shall not cover less than
the descriptions used in relevant UN instruments when the
ATT entered into force. These instruments, according to the
United States, are the International Instrument to Enable
States to Identify and Trace, in a Timely and Reliable
Manner, Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons, and the UN
Register of Conventional Arms.
Key
The ATT prohibits states-parties from approving treaty-
covered transfers in cases when the state has knowledge
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