TRUMP TO CALL ON DIPLOMATS TO SET UP MORE US ARMS SALES
▶ President to announce ‘whole of government’ approach that will ease rules on weapons exports but may also allow advanced hardware to fall into terrorists’ hands
The Trump administration is putting the finishing touches to a plan that calls for US military attaches and diplomats to drum up billions of dollars in business overseas for the US arms industry.
President Donald Trump is expected to announce a “whole of government” approach that will also ease export rules on US military hardware and focus on the economic interests of manufacturers, officials said.
The initiative, which will include hardware ranging from fighter jets and drones to warships and artillery, is expected to be launched as early as next month, senior officials said.
A key policy change would call for embassy staff to act as a sales force for defence contractors but the specific guidelines were unclear.
Using this approach, embassy staff could asked to press foreign envoys in a push for sales and brief visiting senior US officials so they can help to advance deals, one source said.
One senior administration official described the proposal as a “180-degree shift” in the current arms-length approach to overseas weapons sales.
Mr Trump is seeking to fulfil a 2016 election campaign promise to create jobs in the US by selling more goods and services abroad and cut the US trade deficit from a six-year high of US$50 billion (Dh183.6bn).
The administration is also under pressure from US defence contractors that face growing competition from foreign rivals such as China and Russia.
But any loosening of the internationally agreed restrictions on weapons sales would be in direct defiance of human rights and arms control advocates, who have long said there is too great a risk of fuelling violence in regions such as the Middle East and South Asia, or arms being diverted for use in terrorist attacks.
Senior officials said another aspect of the plan would be to revise the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations, which have governed arms exports since 1976 and had not been fully revamped in more than three decades.
This expanded government effort on behalf of American arms makers, together with looser restrictions on weapons exports and more favourable treatment of sales to non-Nato allies and partners, could bring billions of dollars in deals and more jobs, the senior official said.
The strategy of having the Pentagon and the state department take a more active role in securing foreign arms deals could especially benefit major defence contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
“We want to see those guys, the commercial and military attaches, unfettered to be salesmen for this stuff, to be promoters,” said the senior administration official.
A state department official, asked to confirm details of the coming policy, said the new approach “gives our partners a greater capacity to help share the burden of international security, benefits the defence industrial base and will provide more good jobs for American workers”.
The White House and Pentagon declined to comment.
Defence industry officials and lobbyists have welcomed what they expect will be a more sales-friendly approach.
Mr Trump has the legal authority to direct government embassy “security assistance officers”, military personnel and civilians, to do more to help drive arms sales.
Administration officials described this group, which until now has had duties such as helping to manage US military aid overseas and providing some information to foreign governments for buying US arms, as underused.
One national security analyst said that easing export restrictions to allow defence contractors to reap greater profits internationally would increase the danger of top-ofthe-line US weapons going to governments with poor human rights records or being used by extremists.
“This administration has demonstrated from the very beginning that human rights have taken a back seat to economic concerns,” said Rachel Stohl, director of the conventional defence programme at the Stimson Centre in Washington.
“And the short sightedness of a new arms export policy could have serious long-term implications.”
The government officials said that human rights and regional security concerns would remain part of the formula for arms sales decisions.
But they said such reviews would now give greater weight to whether a deal would be good for the US economy and strengthen America’s defence industrial base, in which case red tape would be cut.
Rules to make it easier to sell US-made military drones overseas and compete against fast-growing Chinese and Israeli rivals are also expected to be in the Trump plan, officials said.
Mr Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, also sought to make it easier to sell to America’s most trusted allies, but in a more measured approach billed as a way to boost American business while keeping strict controls against more dangerous arms proliferation.
Foreign weapons sales soared during Mr Obama’s tenure, with the US retaining its position as the world’s top arms supplier.
Shares of the five biggest US defence contractors, including Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, have more than tripled over the past five years and trade at or near all-time highs.
Foreign military sales in fiscal 2017, comprising much of Mr Trump’s first year in office and the final months of Mr Obama’s term, climbed to $42bn, compared to $31bn in the prior year, the US Defence Security Co-operation Agency said.
The Trump government has already moved forward on several sales, including a push for $7bn in precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia and the unblocking of $3bn in arms to Bahrain.
Concerns have been raised about the government’s preparations to make it easier for American gun makers to sell small arms, including assault rifles and ammunition, to foreign buyers.
A draft of the overall policy recently finished by teams of state, defence and commerce department officials co-ordinated by Mr Trump’s National Security Council must now be approved by a senior cabinet members before being sent to his desk, the government sources said.
When Mr Trump announces an extensive framework of the plan, there will be a 60-day public comment period. After that, the government is expected to reveal further details.
Some of the changes are expected to take the form of what is formally known as a presidential national security decision directive, two sources said.
The short sightedness of a new arms export policy could have serious longterm implications RACHEL STOHL Director of defence studies at the Stimson Centre in Washington