The Dutch Parliament has voted to ban all Dutch arms export to Saudi Arabia as a result of their human rights violations. To take it one step further, the Netherlands is urging other European countries to follow in their footsteps and create a continent wide Saudi arms embargo. In order to justify their actions, Dutch MPs mentioned UN figures, which estimate as many of 6,000 people have been killed in the Saudi-Yemen conflict. This embargo includes a dual-use clause some items, such as fertilizer, which have a secondary purpose for violence would be banned as well.
This reminds me in class how we are discussing net exports and how protectionalist policy affects a country's net exports. The new embargo will negatively affect both the economy of Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands, but in this case I feel that the damage to the economy is justified. In the end, I feel that Saudi Arabia will just buy their weapons from another source, so this event could be seen as an opportunity for another foreign weapons industry. However, I hope that these countries will realize that implications of starting to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia and choose not to.
URL: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/netherlands-votes-to-ban-weapons-exports-to-saudi-arabia-a6933996.html
I agree with the Dutch Parliament's move to ban the exporting of dutch arms to Saudi Arabia. I am not sure if I would label this as a protectionalist policy as the Netherlands is the country implementing the policy, not Saudi Arabia banning imports of Dutch arms. Yes, I agree with you that Saudi Arabia will simply buy arms elsewhere, which is a sad but real truth.
ReplyDeleteThis is a strong move by the Netherlands. However, I think that it is the right thing to do. Hopefully other countries begin to refrain from selling to countries similar to Saudi Arabia as well. However, I do not see that happening any time soon.
ReplyDeleteDo you think a policy that monitors the arms usage would be a more viable option
ReplyDelete