LONDON: Today Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary, committed the Government to working towards an international arms treaty in his speech SECURING A GLOBAL ARMS TRADE TREATY
at the Institute of Civil Engineers, London [1].
Commenting on the speech, Andrew Wood, a spokesperson for Campaign Against Arms Trade said:
An international arms trade treaty is to be welcomed but it should completely ban the international trade in arms. The present Government has made arms export policy more transparent since taking office but it still allows arms to be sold to repressive regimes and conflict zones. Given that arms companies call the shots on Government arms export policy, we’re concerned the treaty won’t be worth the paper it’s written on.
[2]
ENDS
For more information please contact: CAAT Press Office on 020 7281 0297
Editor’s Notes
[1] For details of the speech see the Foreign and Commonwealth website at: http://www.fco.gov.uk
[2] Details of the mechanisms for corporate capture of the Government’s arms export policy are contained in the report Who calls the shots? How government-corporate collusion drives arms exports
is available on paper or online.
