It is time to take practical political steps to halt the promotion of arms exports. This is an important victory, but opponents to the legislation may continue their arguments against the Code. Following are a few of those arguments and our rebuttals. The Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers does not prevent weapons sales or other types of arms transfers. Rather, it changes the rules of the weapons export process.
Current law favors the arms exporter.
The Code of Conduct simply requires a greater level of scrutiny before making eligible for weapons transfers dictatorships, human rights abusers, aggressors, and countries not participating in the UN Registry of Arms Transfers. Thus, the Code is a compromise between the arms export industry and those of us who wish to ban arms transfers. It is an advance from current law. According to this argument, the U.S. should either send weapons to any country or to none, until it reforms itself. We believe that taking a next step to put the brakes on weapons trafficking is a better idea.