U.S. Reforms “Open Floodgates” on Arms Exports
▻http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/10/u-s-reforms-open-floodgates-on-arms-exports
La "régulation" des exportations d’armes passe essentiellement entre les mains du Département du commerce, autrement dit Dérégulation sans précédent de l’exportation des armes aux États-Unis.
The most problematic aspect of the reforms is the extensive deregulation of military exports by categorising them as ‘dual-use’ goods, which currently face no trade restrictions under international commercial law.
But according to critics, this large deregulation of armaments trade will have serious long-term consequences for U.S. military strategy and for human rights abuses across the globe.
The arms export reforms will transfer the oversight of military export items from the U.S. Department of State to the U.S. Department of Commerce. This change will only increase the risks connected with arms exports, critics say.
“Unlike standard armaments, dual-use goods currently face little or no restriction because they’ve always been considered normal commercial goods,” said William J. Lowell, a former U.S. State Department official and now the managing director of Lowell Defense Trade, a national security consulting firm here.
“What this deregulation does is move as much as 75 percent of our arms exports to the Commerce Department, with no regulation,” Lowell told IPS.