BERLIN, March 9 (UPI) -- Britain is leading a number of European Union countries in a bid to create and monitor safeguards on eventual EU arms sales to China.
The United States and Australia have repeatedly voiced concern over the union lifting its 1989 embargo, but France has led the EU's bid to resume sales, the International Herald Tribune said Wednesday.
"The issue now is to how to create maximum accountability and maximum transparency over what kinds of weapons are sold to China," said a British official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It is no secret Britain wants to put more teeth into the code of conduct that sets out under what conditions weapons can be exported."
The EU's Code of Conduct lists eight criteria under which export licensing decisions should be based, and are linked to human rights violations and regional stability as well as the risk exports to one country might be forwarded to another that is not part of the license.
The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Ireland are among the largest backers of Britain's call for strict standards, the newspaper said.
