APPENDIX 8
Memorandum from the Fund for Peace
The Fund for Peace believes that during discussions
regarding the new UK export control legislation, the UK Government
has taken excerpts from our report on the US arms brokering law,
Casting the Net, out of context, most recently the UK Secretary
of State for Trade and Industry referred to our work during an
oral evidence session to the Joint Committee.
The 1996 US law on arms brokers is widely regarded
as one of the best legislative models. It requires all brokers
under US jurisdiction to register with the U.S. government and
request licenses for each transaction they undertake. Crucially,
this statute applies to all who are considered US persons, including
nationals and residents, no matter where they operate, whether
they are transacting US or foreign-made weapons, or whether such
weapons ever touch U.S. soil. In sum, not only does the law empower
implementing and enforcing U.S. agencies to keep tabs on the number
of brokers and the type of their operations, it also subjects
violators to U.S. jurisdiction irrespective of where an offense
had been committed. The Fund for Peace has extensively analyzed
the US law and found it to be the best model particularly because
of its comprehensive scope and application of extra-territorial
jurisdiction over US persons trafficking arms outside of the US;
we used it as one of the bases for our model international convention
on arms brokering which we introduced at the UN during the 2001
Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons
in All Its Aspects.
Passed by the US Congress in 1996 as an amendment
to the Arms Export Control Act, the arms brokering statue closed
glaring loopholes in domestic legislation, particularly relating
to off-shore arms trafficking. Unfortunately, that law has yet
to be applied. Such lack of enforcement has been due mainly to
the newness of the law as well as the lack of political will on
the part of the US government to implement the law. At no point
in Casting the Net is it stated that the law is unenforceable,
but rather that the US Government had, up to the time of writing,
chosen not to enforce it. However, the Fund for Peace believes
that the US Government is now making a greater effort to enforce
the law. The US government has repeatedly called for other governments
to follow its lead and adopt similarly strict national legislation
on arms brokers. For example, US Ambassador James Cunningham stated
before UNSC that strong brokering laws where the most effective
means to prevent small arms and light weapons from getting into
the wrong hands (see http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/arms/stories/01080201.htm)
The Fund for Peace believes that the UK Government should seize
this opportunity to correct the loopholes and oversights with
the legislation currently under discussion.
14 April 2003
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