The involuntary third-largest arms dealer in the world? Germany's pretense towards arms exports

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) accuses the German federal government of being insincere regarding arms exports. "The fact that Germany – being the third largest arms exporter in the world, having doubled its small arms exports in 2012 – will take the first opportunity to sign the UN Arms Trade Treaty seems implausible," criticized the human rights organization. "The federal government does nothing to limit arms deals, but promotes an unrestricted increase of German arms exports for political and economic reasons. A state that presents itself as an exemplary student before the United Nations should also implement the lessons learned and systematically restrict the arms trade."

On Monday, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle will sign the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty which was negotiated in April 2013 in New York. The agreement will only come into effect if it is ratified by at least 50 states. June 3 is the first day on which the treaty can be signed.

According to the STP, the federal government's promises to limit arms trades would be more credible if there were attempts to make controversial arms deals more transparent. Instead, problematic arms deals are often denied in order to lead the public astray. Mostly, the controversial arms exports are not made public by governmental instances but by statements of dictators or individual research by journalists or members of parliament.

In the medium run, Germany's arms exports will not be affected by the Arms Trade Treaty. The agreement contains several loopholes and there is a lack of possible sanctions for non-compliance – so the agreement is to be seen as mainly symbolic. "Further, the arms export policies in Germany and the European Union are even more restrictive – but Germany managed to increase its arms exports significantly in recent years nonetheless," the human rights organization stated. Thus, the federal government authorized the sale of small arms and small arms parts adding up to a value of 76.15 million Euros in 2012. In 2011, permits for exports worth 37.9 million Euros were granted. Germany is one of the world leaders in regarding arms exports, following the United States and Russia.