05 July 2001

Fact Sheet: State Department on Transparency in Arms Sales

The U.S. government regulates exports of small arms and light weapons under fully transparent procedures, according to a State Department fact sheet.

Following is the text of the fact sheet, which was issued July 5:

Fact Sheet
Department of State
Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
Washington, DC, July 5, 2001
Transparency in Arms Sales

Before the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons (SA/LW) can be dealt with effectively, it is essential that we first carefully regulate the international transfers (legal trade) in SA/LW and ensure that it is properly controlled. To that end, the U.S. Government regulates arms exports under fully transparent procedures and promotes greater openness in the practices of other nations.

Under Section 655 of the Foreign Assistance Act, the U.S. Congress has mandated that information concerning lawfully authorized exports of U.S. defense articles and services be published annually. In 1996, reporting requirements under Section 655 were expanded to increase the visibility of arms sales by lowering previous reporting thresholds. The report - commonly called the "Section 655 report" - includes detailed information, compiled on a country-by-country basis, concerning the quantity and value of defense articles (including firearms and ammunition) properly authorized for export under the Arms Export Control Act. The United States has presented this report to the 33-nation Wassenaar Arrangement as a model for transparency in the export of conventional arms. New legislation has expanded the report to include the actual transfers of arms. To ensure that the Department of State has the data to satisfy the latter requirement, arms exporters -- who were already required to obtain State Department licenses to export arms -- are now required to report the actual transfer of the arms to the Department within 15 days of their shipment. The "Section 655" report is available on the Internet at www.pmdtc.org.

The U.S. also publishes reports on arms flows to regions of conflict in order to raise public awareness of the illicit SA/LW trade issue. In 1999, for example, the State Department released Arms and Conflict in Africa which is still available on the Internet.

As further evidence of its commitment to making the arm transfers as transparent as possible, the United States reports its arm transfers and holdings annually to the UN Register of Conventional Arms. The U.S. has also adopted the transparency provisions in the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Document on Small Arms and Light Weapons and has proposed expanding reporting categories in the Wassenaar Arrangement to include SA/LW.