ROME (Reuters) – Paris and Washington agreed on Friday to explore the possibility of making arms export rules more effective, addressing a long-standing source of tensions, as their leaders met for the first time since the diplomatic crisis that arose after the conclusion of a strategic pact between the United States, Great Britain and Australia.
“The Presidents intend to launch a strategic dialogue on military trade to promote a common approach to issues related to market access and military exports,” said US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron in a statement common after their meeting in Rome on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
The two governments pledged to “identify measures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of military export authorizations,” the statement added.
France has sought to clarify the American regulations on the trafficking of weapons at the international level (in English International Traffic in Arms Regulations, ITAR), which allows Washington to block the re-export of sensitive American components incorporated in foreign weapons.
French and European defense companies have criticized this regulation for hampering their exports to third countries in the past, while American arms companies have campaigned to keep the rules flexible enough to avoid putting too strict a brake on their own arms sales.
“We have concluded a number of bilateral cooperation agreements, several of which are essential in my view, first of all on arms exports,” Emmanuel Macron told reporters after his meeting with Joe Biden.
“Why? Because we need to clarify the US rules on international arms trafficking, otherwise our policies may be completely blocked,” he added.
A spokesperson for the US State Department, which oversees controls on exports subject to the regulations, declined to comment on the diplomatic negotiations.
(Reporting Michel Rose and John Irish with Tim Hepher and Mike Stone; written by Tim Hepher; French version Camille Raynaud)
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