Effect of the proposed War Materiel Act revision

Under the new Article 22b, the Federal Council could depart from all the licensing criteria in Article 22a under vaguely defined ‘exceptional circumstances’. The public would not have to be informed. The Federal Council could add Iraq, Syria and Yemen to Annex 2 by amending the War Materiel Ordinance. This would remove the exclusion criterion based on participation in an armed conflict and make approval the rule. The Federal Council could refuse a licence only in exceptional cases. Article 18 paragraph 1 would abolish non-re-export declarations in the vast majority of cases. Weapons for Iraq, Syria and Yemen could thus easily be supplied through a subsidiary or intermediary in a third country. For example, the following states could serve as third countries, having supplied substantial quantities of war materiel in recent years according to SIPRI: Iraq: United States (3’948 million TIV); Yemen: United States (26 million TIV).