U.S. reverses stance on treaty to regulate arms trade

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The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto.

The decision, announced in a statement released by the U.S. State Department, overturns the position of former President George W. Bush's administration, which had opposed such a treaty on the grounds that national controls were better.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States would support the talks as long as the negotiating forum, the so-called Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, "operates under the rules of consensus decision-making." [snip]

[Right. Like the EUNuchs have followed that rule in their forced-implementation of the EU Constitution aka Lisbon 'treaty'? {"Ireland {'s refusal} cannot speak for the EU"}

Another chip away at our sovereignty.]

The proposed treaty is opposed by the U.S. think tank Heritage Foundation, which said last month that it would not restrict the access of "dictators and terrorists" to arms but would be used to reduce the ability of democracies such as Israel to defend their people...

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