14. Dual-use and arms trade controls

Chapter:

14. Dual-use and arms trade controls

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2022

Author(s):

Mark Bromley

During 2021 a range of global, multilateral and regional efforts took place that were aimed at strengthening controls on the trade in conventional arms and in dual-use items connected with conventional, chemical, biological 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 unchanged. The global Covid-19 pandemic continued to limit in-person meetings for most of the year, although a growing willingness to replace these with online or hybrid meetings did allow some plenaries and intersessional processes to take place. The election of President Joe Biden in the United States saw a reversal of some of the policies adopted by the previous administration on the United Nations sanctions on Iran and the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and a return to greater engagement in international and multilateral export controls instruments and processes. However, the Biden administration continued to seek allies’ support for the USA’s use of national and multilateral export controls measures to restrict transfers of dual-use items to China. This has led China to seek International support for its opposition to what it views as the misuse of export control measures for national economic and security purposes. Divisions between the USA and China may weaken the increasingly fragile International consensus concerning the use of multilateral export controls as non-proliferation tools.