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Saturday, April 27, 2019

Donald Trump to withdraw US from UN Arms Trade Treaty


Donald Trump to withdraw US from UN Arms Trade Treaty  

President makes announcement at National Rifle Association conference 



Donald Trump at a conference for the US gun lobby in Indianapolis on Friday: 'We will never allow foreign bureaucrats to trample on your Second Amendment freedoms' © Getty 

President Donald Trump has announced he is withdrawing the US from a UN-negotiated global arms treaty, a victory for the National Rifle Association, which had lobbied against the pact.

We’re taking our signature back. The United Nations will get notice that we are formally rejecting this treaty,” Mr Trump said at a conference for the US gun lobby in Indianapolis on Friday. 

He dismissed the Arms Trade Treaty, which was signed by Barack Obama in 2013 but never ratified by Congress, as a means for the UN to exert unfair influence over US citizens. 

“We will never allow foreign bureaucrats to trample on your Second Amendment freedoms. We will never ratify the UN Arms Trade Treaty. I hope you’re happy,” Mr Trump told the NRA audience. 

The NRA has long campaigned for an end to US support for the Arms Trade Treaty, which seeks to regulate the global arms trade and keep arms out of the hands of nefarious actors. The treaty has about 130 signatories. 

While about 100 countries have ratified the treaty, more than two dozen — including the US — have signed the treaty but never ratified it. 

Mr Trump’s appearance at the NRA conference comes at the US president seeks to shore up support from the organisation and its supporters ahead of the 2020 election. On stage in Indianapolis, Mr Trump signed a letter to the Senate, which he said would “discontinue the treaty ratification process and return the now-rejected treaty right back to me in the Oval Office, where I will dispose of it”. 

He tossed his pen into the crowd afterwards for effect. A US administration official said the US would officially notify the UN that it was revoking its signature from the treaty within a matter of days. 

Seventeen of the world’s 20 biggest arms exporters — including Russia and China — had not signed the Arms Trade Treaty, the official said. For this reason, the official argued, the pact was ineffective. 

 “The other leading arms exporters are not party to the treaty so they would not be constrained . . .

 This treaty imposes risk but no gain,” the official said. In the US, the NRA has criticised the treaty as impinging on the rights of American gun owners by potentially subjecting them to international rules and regulations. 

Meanwhile, supporters of the treaty argued that Mr Trump was making a mistake. Bob Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, called the Trump administration’s action “yet another myopic decision that jeopardises US security based on false premises and fear-mongering”. 

“While Americans from all walks of life have come to painfully understand the threat posed by not doing enough to prevent weapons from ending up in the wrong hands, it is disturbing to see this administration turn back the clock on the little progress we have made to prevent illicit arms transfers,” Mr Menendez said.


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