14. Dual-use and arms trade controls

Chapter:

14. Dual-use and arms trade controls

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2021

Author(s):

Andrea Edoardo Varisco

Global, multilateral and regional efforts continued in 2020 to strengthen controls on the trade in conventional arms and in dual-use items connected with conventional, biological, chemical and nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. Membership of the different international and multilateral instruments that seek to establish and promote agreed standards for the trade in arms and dual-use items remained stable. The global Covid‑19 pandemic limited in-person meetings for most of the year, testing the resilience of the instruments and the capacity of states to take decisions and address technological and political challenges in such exceptional circumstances. In addition, there were growing signs that the strength of these instruments is being increasingly tested by stretched national resources and broader geopolitical tensions. This could be seen in the shortfalls in compliance with mandatory reporting—coupled with a decline in public reporting—under the 2013 Arms Trade Treaty (ATT); the various reported violations of United Nations arms embargoes; and unilateral efforts by the United States to impose a UN arms embargo on Iran beyond 2020. At the same time, states continued to make progress on reaching agreement on expanding and developing technical aspects of these controls.