This week marks ten years since the adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the first legally binding global treaty to regulate the international trade in conventional arms. This milestone will likely go unnoticed in the United States, where political posturing has harmed the treaty’s chances of ratification and undermined the U.S. role in ensuring its implementation. However, the treaty, which covers weapons ranging from small arms to tanks, fighter jets, and warships, has made significant contributions towards reducing the human suffering associated with the use of conventional weapons and promoting cooperation, transparency, and responsible action in the global arms trade.
The ATT, which entered into force in December 2014, establishes common standards for regulating international arms transfers. Today, 113 countries are party to the treaty, including nearly all of the United States’ closest allies, while another 28 states have signed it. The United States became a signatory in September 2013, though the treaty has yet to be ratified by the U.S. Senate.
Because the United States is the world’s largest arms exporter, it played a significant role in the ATT’s negotiations, ensuring that the treaty did not contradict U.S. laws, policies, or regulations and reflected U.S. values, much to the consternation of some countries that wanted a stricter treaty. However, even with the concessions made to the United States throughout the negotiations, and a final text that reflected U.S. interests, the United States has remained outside the treaty.
In 2019, President Trump took the unusual step of sending a symbolic letter stating that the United States does not intend to ratify the treaty or be bound by its “object and purpose.” Although there is no mechanism to undo the 2013 U.S. signature, the message made clear that politics trumped reason when it comes to the ATT. Suggestions by President Trump that the treaty threatened domestic gun policy had no basis in reality and betrayed the work of U.S. diplomats who negotiated the treaty to address those very concerns. So not only did the “unsigning” have no tangible benefit, it instead has come at great cost to U.S. leadership, credibility, influence, and interests.
Although candidate Biden promised a return to the ATT in his campaign and support for the treaty appeared in the Democratic Party’s platform, the Biden administration has not made any notable progress on the ATT to date. Most disappointingly, the Biden Administration has not undone President Trump’s “unsigning,” despite needing only to send a letter to the UN stating that it will fulfill its responsibilities as a signatory and be bound by the object and purpose of the treaty, which is to reduce human suffering and ensure a responsible, accountable, and transparent arms trade.
The Biden Administration had previously stated that any policy change with regard to the ATT would have to wait for the long-delayed U.S. Conventional Arms Transfer (CAT) Policy to be released. At the 8th Conference of States Parties to the ATT meeting in September 2021, the U.S. delegation announced that the United States would soon issue a new CAT Policy that would help determine “the proper relationship of the United States to the Arms Trade Treaty.” The new CAT policy was released in February 2023. While the policy does not mention the ATT by name, it does recommit the United States to participating in and supporting arms control agreements and establishes a framework for U.S. arms exports that aligns closely with the standards laid out in the ATT. Moreover, the CAT policy has an emphasis on human rights and the prevention of harm, both of which are consistent with the object and purpose of the ATT.
Now, with the tenth anniversary of the treaty’s adoption upon us, the Administration has no excuse to delay action on the ATT. At the very least, the President should now reaffirm America’s signature. If the Biden Administration takes its promises seriously, it should also begin socializing the treaty and its benefits among key domestic stakeholders with an eye towards eventual ratification. After ten years, the United States cannot remain silent.
Photo: Foreign Ministers deliver a speech after a ceremony for the signing of the Arms Trade Treaty at United Nations headquarters in New York on June 3, 2013. INSIDER IMAGES/Keith Bedford.
The Arms Trade Treaty at Ten
By Rachel Stohl
In Conventional Arms
This week marks ten years since the adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the first legally binding global treaty to regulate the international trade in conventional arms. This milestone will likely go unnoticed in the United States, where political posturing has harmed the treaty’s chances of ratification and undermined the U.S. role in ensuring its implementation. However, the treaty, which covers weapons ranging from small arms to tanks, fighter jets, and warships, has made significant contributions towards reducing the human suffering associated with the use of conventional weapons and promoting cooperation, transparency, and responsible action in the global arms trade.
The ATT, which entered into force in December 2014, establishes common standards for regulating international arms transfers. Today, 113 countries are party to the treaty, including nearly all of the United States’ closest allies, while another 28 states have signed it. The United States became a signatory in September 2013, though the treaty has yet to be ratified by the U.S. Senate.
Because the United States is the world’s largest arms exporter, it played a significant role in the ATT’s negotiations, ensuring that the treaty did not contradict U.S. laws, policies, or regulations and reflected U.S. values, much to the consternation of some countries that wanted a stricter treaty. However, even with the concessions made to the United States throughout the negotiations, and a final text that reflected U.S. interests, the United States has remained outside the treaty.
In 2019, President Trump took the unusual step of sending a symbolic letter stating that the United States does not intend to ratify the treaty or be bound by its “object and purpose.” Although there is no mechanism to undo the 2013 U.S. signature, the message made clear that politics trumped reason when it comes to the ATT. Suggestions by President Trump that the treaty threatened domestic gun policy had no basis in reality and betrayed the work of U.S. diplomats who negotiated the treaty to address those very concerns. So not only did the “unsigning” have no tangible benefit, it instead has come at great cost to U.S. leadership, credibility, influence, and interests.
Although candidate Biden promised a return to the ATT in his campaign and support for the treaty appeared in the Democratic Party’s platform, the Biden administration has not made any notable progress on the ATT to date. Most disappointingly, the Biden Administration has not undone President Trump’s “unsigning,” despite needing only to send a letter to the UN stating that it will fulfill its responsibilities as a signatory and be bound by the object and purpose of the treaty, which is to reduce human suffering and ensure a responsible, accountable, and transparent arms trade.
The Biden Administration had previously stated that any policy change with regard to the ATT would have to wait for the long-delayed U.S. Conventional Arms Transfer (CAT) Policy to be released. At the 8th Conference of States Parties to the ATT meeting in September 2021, the U.S. delegation announced that the United States would soon issue a new CAT Policy that would help determine “the proper relationship of the United States to the Arms Trade Treaty.” The new CAT policy was released in February 2023. While the policy does not mention the ATT by name, it does recommit the United States to participating in and supporting arms control agreements and establishes a framework for U.S. arms exports that aligns closely with the standards laid out in the ATT. Moreover, the CAT policy has an emphasis on human rights and the prevention of harm, both of which are consistent with the object and purpose of the ATT.
Now, with the tenth anniversary of the treaty’s adoption upon us, the Administration has no excuse to delay action on the ATT. At the very least, the President should now reaffirm America’s signature. If the Biden Administration takes its promises seriously, it should also begin socializing the treaty and its benefits among key domestic stakeholders with an eye towards eventual ratification. After ten years, the United States cannot remain silent.
Photo: Foreign Ministers deliver a speech after a ceremony for the signing of the Arms Trade Treaty at United Nations headquarters in New York on June 3, 2013. INSIDER IMAGES/Keith Bedford.
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