White House Fact Sheet on the Bolivia-United States Weapons Export Control Memorandum of Understanding

The United States and Bolivia signed a weapons export control memorandum of understanding today. Secretary of State James A. Baker III signed on behalf of the United States. Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Iturralde signed on behalf of Bolivia.

The memorandum of understanding will help diminish the flow of U.S. light arms and other items to drug traffickers in the Andean countries by providing a framework for:

the Department of State's Office of Munitions Control to condition issuance of a U.S. firearms export license upon the presentation of an import certificate validated by the importing government;

subsequent discussions that will specify the weapons and other items to be covered by the understanding.

The U.S. Government is also working domestically to suppress the flow of smuggled arms, which are an important part of the narcotics trafficking problem. We are pursuing discussions with other governments also concerned about limiting the flow of U.S. weapons to illegitimate end users in the Andean countries.