The Administration Is Wrong: ATT's Criteria Are Not Ours

The U.N. Arms Trade Treaty’s Criteria for Transfers Pose Problems for the U.S., Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2706, July 9, 2012. "The U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is being negotiated in July. The framework on which the ATT is likely to be based is clear: it will set out criteria that signatories must apply to proposed arms transfers, and require them to decide if the proposed transfer poses a risk under any of the criteria. This approach is troubling in part because the criteria are likely to be ill-defined. It is also troubling because the ATT’s ‘checklist’ model differs fundamentally from the ‘guidance’ model the U.S. currently employs. Worst of all, though, is the fact that the ATT will enumerate criteria that will be easy to expand in ways that the U.S. cannot control. If the ATT is to exist, it should be based on a commitment by willing and democratic signatories to develop effective systems of border and export control."