AFP/Mexico City
Mexico and Germany’s foreign ministers announced that their countries would ratify the international Arms Trade Treaty.
The treaty, the first regulating the conventional arms trade estimated at around $60bn a year, will take effect after 50 countries ratify it, a process that could take up to two years.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the ATT in April.
Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade and his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle, meeting in Mexico City for talks aimed at boosting ties, said they would ratify the treaty on behalf of their countries today.
“I would have liked a more aggressive scope” of the treaty, said Meade, but “increasing restrictions to prevent (arms) falling into the hands of those who should not have them is a good step.”