Will U.S., the World’s Largest Arms Manufacturer, Back Landmark U.N. Arms Trade Treaty?

Amy Goodman
Democracy Now! / Video Report
Published: Tuesday 3 July 2012
“The global weapons market is valued at more than $60 billion a year and critics argue that a binding treaty is necessary to prevent guns from flooding into conflict zones and fueling wars and human rights violations.”

Delegates from 190 countries have gathered at the United Nations to begin talks on the first-ever global agreement regulating the arms trade. According to arms control campaigners, one person every minute dies as a result of armed violence around the world. The global weapons market is valued at more than $60 billion a year and critics argue that a binding treaty is necessary to prevent guns from flooding into conflict zones and fueling wars and human rights violations. The United States is by far the world’s largest producer, importer and exporter of armaments. "Believe it or not, bananas and bottled water are regulated more stringently than conventional weapons — weapons that are killing 1,500 people every day, up to 750,000 a year," says Suzanne Nossel, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "These are the real weapons of mass destruction because they are killing year in and year out, person by person, family by family, village by village."



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ABOUT Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 900 stations in North America. She is the author of "Breaking the Sound Barrier," recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.

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1 comments on "Will U.S., the World’s Largest Arms Manufacturer, Back Landmark U.N. Arms Trade Treaty?"

Robert Smiley

July 04, 2012 8:55pm

It would hardly be in America's best interests to sign an arms treaty. After all the US is the arms dealer to the world, friend or foe, the money is the same. More death, more destruction more arms sales! The business of America is business and trading with the devil is very lucrative, just ask Halliburton, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and all the others.