Davey Tells Traders 'Ethics Before Exports'

22.5.06

Edward Davey, Liberal Democrat MP for Kingston and Surbiton, has joined leading charities in calling for tighter controls on the arms trade.

By signing up to Oxfam's 'Famous Faces' campaign, the local MP lent his support to Oxfam and Amnesty International's campaign for Britain's arms export trade to conform to strict ethical standards. The campaign is focusing on the signing of the International Arms Trade Treaty (IATT), which will hopefully come before the UN General Assembly in October.

Edward Davey MP said,

"Control of the arms trade may seem a rather distant issue, but is one of huge importance about which local people are, quite rightly, very concerned.

"The Liberal Democrats have been calling for tougher regulation of arms exports by the UK parliament for some time. We also want to see the EU Code of Conduct on arms sales strengthened and the United Nations moving to strengthen its controls on arms sales.

"'Famous Faces' is part of the 'Million Faces' petition that will be presented to the Foreign Secretary on 6th June and to the United Nations in their June conference. Together we can make the Government sit up and listen and take the lead to control the arms trade."

Summary of Lib Dem position

The UK remains one of the three biggest exporters of arms. We believe that Britain's arms export regimes should conform to the strictest ethical standards and that systems should be established to tackle the activities of arms brokers operating independently of national and regional regulatory procedures.

We want to see tougher regulation of arms exports by UK parliament, moving the Defence Export Services Organisation in to the private sector and removing all public funding from it. The EU (voluntary) Code of Conduct on arms sales should be strengthened with a mechanism put in place to ensure conformity by member states and their offshore dependents. The UN should establish a small arms decommissioning body to control arms as part of peacekeeping missions and strengthen its controls on arms sales.