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arms trade

Sale of conventional weapons, such as tanks, combat aircraft, and related technology, from a manufacturing country to another nation. Arms exports are known in the trade as ‘arms transfers’. Most transfers take place between governments and can be accompanied by training and maintenance agreements. International agreements, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, outlaw the transfer of nuclear weapons and weapons of biological or chemical warfare. There are also agreements not to supply certain countries with conventional weapons, such as North Korea and Liberia which may use weapons for internal repression or neighbour disputes. However, an active black market means that these arms embargoes are typically overcome. Around a half of the world's arms exports end up in countries of the developing world.

Scale of arms trade

Government and commercial secrecy has meant that the size of the global arms trade can only be estimated. One of the most respected annual estimates is made by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). For 2005 it estimated the value of the global trade in conventional weapons at $56 billion/£27 billion. Significantly, between 2002 and 2005 there has been a massive increase in the market totalling around $20 billion/£9.84 billion.

Arms were chiefly imported in 2004 by countries in the Middle East ($10 billion/£4.92 billion, chief markets: UAE $3.6 billion/£1.77 billion and Saudi Arabia $3.2 billion/£1.57 billion). The second largest importer was Asia ($5.8 billion/£2.85 billion, chief markets: China $2.7 billion/£1.33 billion; India $1.7 billion/£0.84 billion; and Taiwan $1.1 billion/£0.54 billion).

The main exporters in 2006 were USA ($14.08 billion/£6.9 billion) and Europe ($11.2 billion/£5.49 billion). Within Europe, Russia ($5.8 billion/£2.8 billion), France ($0.4 billion/£0.19 billion), Germany ($1.0 billion/£0.49 billion), and UK ($3.3 billion/£1.61 billion) were the largest.

The proportion of military expenditure accounted for by countries in the developing world was about 18% in 1993 (up from 6% in 1965 but down from 24% in 1989). During the 1980s, NATO countries supplied 31% of arms in the developing world, with France supplying 11%, and the Warsaw Pact countries supplying 58%. In 1994 the USA was a major weapons supplier in 45 of the world's 50 regional conflicts, and sold arms worth $14.5 billion/£9.1 billion.

US arms production The International Institute for Strategic Studies reported in 1996 that, despite budget cuts after the Cold War, the USA's military supremacy remained unchallenged. The USA still possesses the most powerful conventional and nuclear armed forces in the world, and is also by far the world's largest arms producer, dominating the market. SIPRI figures show that US conventional arms exports were $12.7 billion/£6.5 billion in 2003.

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