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UN Arms Trade Treaty
may put Taiwan at risk
LOOPHOLES: Academics speculated that China might
use the UN Arms Trade Treaty to claim that the US sale of weapons to Taiwan
violated the treaty¡¦s terms
By William Lowther / Staff reporter in Washington
Washington-based academics are warning US President Barack Obama not to sign the
UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) because it could make it more difficult to sell
weapons to Taiwan.
The treaty is to be negotiated next month in New York.
¡§The US is obligated by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act [TRA] to make available
the hardware and services necessary for Taiwan¡¦s defense,¡¨ Heritage Foundation
Research Fellows Ted Bromund and Dean Cheng (¦¨Ùy) wrote.
In a paper published on Friday, Bromund and Cheng said that because Taiwan is
not a UN member state ¡X and is not recognized by a majority of UN members ¡X the
ATT would not recognize its right to buy or import arms.
¡§The ATT thus provides the basis for a Chinese argument that US sales of arms to
Taiwan would circumvent the PRC¡¦s [People¡¦s Republic of China] import control
system, violate China¡¦s territorial integrity, and thus violate the treaty,¡¨
Bromund and Cheng wrote.
They said the ATT would ¡§very likely¡¨ establish a series of criteria that treaty
signatories are required to apply to proposed arms transfers. One of these
criteria is likely to be that arms transfers should not seriously undermine
peace and security or provoke, prolong or aggravate internal, regional,
subregional or international instability.
¡§Since the Chinese Civil War has never been formally concluded, a state of war
still exists between Taiwan and the PRC,¡¨ Bromund and Cheng said.
They said that this criteria offers the PRC a third argument that the US weapons
sales or transfers to Taiwan would violate the terms of the ATT.
Bromund and Cheng said that the ATT poses three distinct threats to the legal
obligation of the US to provide for the defense of Taiwan, or to the ability of
Taiwan to provide for its own defense.
¡§A US administration that earnestly wished to fulfill its obligations under the
TRA would likely do so, regardless of the ATT,¡¨ the academics said.
However, they said a US administration that believed US sales to Taiwan
endangered US relations with the PRC, or did not want to sell arms to Taiwan for
some other reason, would be able to cite the ATT as a reason not to proceed with
those sales.
¡§Even if the US does not sign or ratify the ATT, US legal scholars who interpret
it as customary international law could use it to argue that the US should not
proceed with a proposed sale,¡¨ Bromund and Cheng said.
They conclude: ¡§The ATT can only raise yet another hurdle to US arms sales to
Taiwan.¡¨
Arms sales, like international relations as a whole, are always a matter for
judgement. In next month¡¦s negotiations, the US should make it clear that it
will not accept any treaty that would impinge on its ability to apply that
judgement to its legal obligation to provide for the defense of Taiwan, they
said.
¡§Elected officials have the broader responsibility to make it clear that they
recognize the importance of the US commitment to Taiwan, and to stand by that
commitment in word and deed,¡¨ Bromund and Cheng said.
In Taipei, Director-General of the Department of North American Affairs at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Bruce Linghu (¥Oª°ºa¹F) said the ministry is aware of
the proposed UN treaty and would keep abreast of any developments.
Issues related to the proposed UN treaty have not been placed on the agenda
between Taiwan and the US, but the ministry will look into the matter, Linghu
said.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
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