[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4095 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4095

      To provide that the President shall attempt to establish an 
international arms sales code of conduct with all Wassenaar Arrangement 
                               countries.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 19, 1998

 Mr. Gejdenson (for himself, Mr. Gilman, Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Berman, Mr. 
 Smith of New Jersey, Mr. Rohrabacher, Ms. Pelosi, Mr. McDermott, Ms. 
  Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Payne, Mr. Clement, Mr. Vento, Mrs. Morella, Mr. 
Delahunt, Mr. Olver, Mr. Luther, Mr. Miller of California, Ms. Waters, 
   Mr. Hastings of Florida, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Barrett of 
   Wisconsin, Mr. Minge, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Ackerman, Ms. Rivers, Mr. 
Gutierrez, Mr. Wexler, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, Mr. Kennedy of Rhode 
Island, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Brown of Ohio, Mr. Nadler, Ms. Velazquez, Mr. 
 Towns, Mr. Dixon, Mr. Kildee, Mr. Rothman, Ms. Hooley of Oregon, and 
    Mr. Moran of Virginia) introduced the following bill; which was 
          referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To provide that the President shall attempt to establish an 
international arms sales code of conduct with all Wassenaar Arrangement 
                               countries.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``International Arms Sales Code of 
Conduct Act of 1998''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The proliferation of conventional arms and conflicts 
        around the globe are multilateral problems. The only way to 
        effectively prevent rogue nations from acquiring conventional 
        weapons is through a multinational ``arms sales code of 
        conduct''.
            (2) Approximately 40,000,000 people, over 75 percent of 
        whom were civilians, died as a result of civil and 
        international wars fought with conventional weapons during the 
        45 years of the cold war, demonstrating that conventional 
        weapons can in fact be weapons of mass destruction.
            (3) Conflict has actually increased in the post cold war 
        era.
            (4) It is in the national security and economic interests 
        of the United States to reduce dramatically the 
        $840,000,000,000 that all countries spend on armed forces every 
        year, $191,000,000,000 of which is spent by developing 
        countries, an amount equivalent to 4 times the total bilateral 
        and multilateral foreign assistance such countries receive 
        every year.
            (5) The Congress has the constitutional responsibility to 
        participate with the executive branch in decisions to provide 
        military assistance and arms transfers to a foreign government, 
        and in the formulation of a policy designed to reduce 
        dramatically the level of international militarization.
            (6) A decision to provide military assistance and arms 
        transfers to a government that is undemocratic, does not 
        adequately protect human rights, or is currently engaged in 
        acts of armed aggression should require a higher level of 
        scrutiny than does a decision to provide such assistance and 
        arms transfers to a government to which these conditions do not 
        apply.

SEC. 3. INTERNATIONAL ARMS SALES CODE OF CONDUCT.

    (a) Negotiations.--The President shall attempt to achieve the 
foreign policy goal of an international arms sales code of conduct with 
all Wassenaar Arrangement countries. The President shall take the 
necessary steps to begin negotiations with all Wassenaar Arrangement 
countries within 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act. 
The purpose of these negotiations shall be to conclude an agreement on 
restricting or prohibiting arms transfers to countries that--
            (1) do not respect democratic processes and the rule of 
        law;
            (2) do not adhere to internationally recognized norms on 
        human rights; or
            (3) are engaged in acts of armed aggression.
    (b) Reports to Congress.--Not later than 6 months after the 
commencement of the negotiations under subsection (a), and not later 
than the end of every 6-month period thereafter until an agreement 
described in subsection (a) is concluded, the President shall report to 
the appropriate committees of the Congress on the progress made during 
these negotiations.
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