Inter-American Convention on Transparency
in Conventional Weapons Acquisitions

When: Adopted on June 7, 1999

Where: Guatemala City, Guatemala

Who: The signatories were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela.

Status: The treaty is not yet in force but will be once six states ratify it, and it will apply to only those six states.

Why: The purpose of the treaty is to increase trust between the nations of the Americas by the exchange of information concerning conventional weapons acquisitions by each nation.

What:  Each state will submit to the depositary by June 15th annual reports of their conventional weapons imports and exports of the preceding year.  Included in the reports will be information about the importing/exporting state, and the quantity and type of arms exported/imported.
               Each state should notify the depositary of acquisition of conventional weapons through imports or through national production.  The notification must be made no later than 90 days after the entry of the weapon into service.  If there was no import or national production of conventional weapons the preceding year, then a report stating no activity must be made no later than June 15th.

Definitions:

Depositary: The depositary is the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS).  When the depositary receives the information on the conventional arms, he/she send that information to all the other signatory states.

Conventional Weapons: This list of conventional weapons is based on the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms:

Battle Tanks

Armored combat vehicles

Large caliber artillery systems

Combat aircraft

Attack helicopters

Warships

Missiles and missile launchers¹

¹Text of Treaty from the OAS website

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