Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden’s administration will unveil a long-awaited overhaul of arms export policy with more emphasis on human rights, three officials from State Department familiar with the new Conventional Arms Transfer (CAT) policy told Reuters.
The CAT policy covers a review of security assistance, government-to-government weapons transfers, and licensed commercial sales of U.S.-origin military equipment and services overseen by the State Department, the Department of Commerce, and the Defence Department, including firearms commonly available in the US.
Defence activists and companies scrutinize such policies for insight into the administration’s posture as it balances the commercial interests of exporters like Lockheed Martin Co (LMT.N) and Raytheon Technologies (RTX.N) against the country’s stated commitment to human rights.
The officials said that one change is how the CAT policy addresses the possibility that arms from the United States could be used for major human rights violations.
Weapons transfer under the new policy
The US State Department will not accept a weapons transfer under the new policy if it determines that the weapons will “more likely than not” be used to facilitate or commit genocide, crimes against humanity, violations of the Geneva Conventions, or severe transgressions of international laws.
Previous CAT policy had said such transfers would not be authorized only when the US had “actual knowledge” that the arms would be used in such actions. “We are looking at the prevention policy when there is a risk of violation of human rights,” one of the officials claimed. They declined to specify countries that the new policy might affect.
Earlier, advocates have questioned weapons sales to various nations. The change can also affect exports of smaller weapons, such as surveillance equipment and assault rifles, that paramilitary forces or police can be used against domestic populations. Some of it is under the aegis of the Commerce Department.
According to Reuters, the Biden administration was exploring this change in 2021. The turbulent withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 and the conflict in Ukraine, which broke out a year ago, were two circumstances that contributed to the delay in the official unveiling.
The National Security Strategy, which the Biden administration unveiled in October, is also connected. The United States is the world’s most prominent arms merchant, selling over $100 billion in training, weapons, and services annually. Members of Congress often show concern for rights when opposing transfers of weapons. For example, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Bob
Menendez, opposes the sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 aircraft to Turkey for many reasons, including concern for human rights. In 2016, the US stopped the planned sale of some 26,000 assault rifles to the Philippines’ national police force after Senator Ben Cardin. The top Democrat official on the foreign relations panel said he would oppose it given his concerns about human rights violations during the government of the country’s then-president, Rodrigo Duterte.
The new approach differs from that taken by the administration of former Republican President Donald Trump in 2018, who viewed arms sales as a way to create American jobs and controversially disregarded the precedent for congressional review of major arms deals to push through a significant sale of smart bombs and other weapons.
