China hampers an EU arms trade code

By David Cronin

Date: 17/11/05

China is only one possible destination for arms exports, albeit potentially the most lucrative.

Nevertheless, the introduction of a new code regulating Europe's arms trade with the outside world seems to have become inextricably linked to the Union's sanctions against Beijing.

Over the past year diplomats have agreed revisions to the EU's 1998 code of conduct on arms sales. They have addressed one of the salient criticisms levelled by human rights activists against the code: that it lacked any real weight. Whereas the code has not, up to now, been legally binding, the diplomats charged with revising it have agreed unanimously that it should be upgraded into an EU common position, which member states would be obliged to comply with.

But France is effectively vetoing the formal adoption of the new code at the Council of Ministers. Paris has stressed that the revisions can only come into effect once the embargo on weapons sales to China, imposed in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, is lifted.

A spokesman for France's representation to the EU suggested that it was only logical that these two steps should take place in parallel. "We would rather see it [the new code] introduced as part of a package, that would also include the lifting of the arms embargo on China," he said.

Earlier this year, there seemed to be a strong likelihood that the embargo on sales to China would, in the words of China's Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, be "swept into the dustbin of history". But the momentum for lifting it has now all but vanished, partly because the US lobbied strongly for the embargo's retention, partly because Beijing refused to make concessions on human rights. French President Jacques Chirac, seeking closer relations with China, sought to end the embargo. Amid fears that EU defence industries would be punished by a vengeful US Congress, the UK and others called for a toughening of the code of conduct.

Chris Patten, who was European commissioner for external relations at that time, describes the episode in his latest book Not Quite the Diplomat as "a good working demonstration of how not to conduct a European foreign policy".

The European Parliament is to adopt a report today (17 November) criticising loopholes that would remain in the new code.

Written by Spanish Green deputy Raül Romeva, the report says that a new code "will not prevent a recurrence" of recent cases where European arms companies were allowed to set up manufacturing facilities overseas.

Author suggests that although China was only one, albeit lucrative destination for European arms exports, the introduction of a new code of conduct regulating the trade in weapons with the outside world seemed to have become inextricably linked to the Union's sanctions against Beijing. The European Parliament was to adopt a report on 17 November 2005, written by Spanish Green deputy Raül Romeva, criticising loopholes that would remain in the new code. Article is part of a European Voice Special Report, 'Defence'.

• Primary Source

European Parliament: Reports: Romeda I Rueva Report on the EU's Code of Conduct on Arms Exports (19 October 2004) http://europarl.europa.eu/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//NONSGML+REPORT+A6-2004-0022+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&L=EN&LEVEL=3&NAV=S&LSTDOC=Y

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