US reaffirms leadership in world arms trade
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (AFP): The United States reaffirmed last year its leadership in world arms trade, cornering nearly 42 per cent of the market as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan prompted a weapons shopping spree among neighbouring nations, according to a congressional report set to be released today.
But the overall volume of weapons trade shrunk almost 13 per cent, dealing a blow to France and other Western European suppliers, who are facing stiff competition from across the Atlantic, said the Congressional Research Service in its annual survey of international arms sales.
The United States ranked first in international arms transfer agreements last year, concluding 16.9 billion dollars worth of them around the world and securing 41.9 per cent of the market, according to the report.
The total represented a 3.4-billion-dollar increase over 2005.
Russia increased its world wide arms sales by 1.2 billion dollars, ending 2006 in second place with a total of 8.7 billion dollars in agreements, or 21.6 per cent of the market.
Britain came in third, but its arms exports grew a paltry 200 million over 2005 and the overall volume of arms transfer deals stood at just 3.1 billion dollars, less than a fifth of the US total.
All told, however, the United States, Russia and Britain controlled last year more than 71 per cent of international arms trade.
But the size of the market has shrunk as major buyers took a pause to absorb previous purchases.
Worldwide weapons orders, according to the report, declined from 46.3 billion dollars in 2005 to 40.3 billion last year, a reduction of nearly 13 per cent.
Meanwhile, Western Europe's market share decreased, according to the report, from 34.4 per cent to 19.1 per cent over the same period of time.
Richard Grimmett, the top national defense expert at the CRS and main author of the study, made it clear he saw growing competition from the United States as the main reason for the European Union's setback.
But the overall volume of weapons trade shrunk almost 13 per cent, dealing a blow to France and other Western European suppliers, who are facing stiff competition from across the Atlantic, said the Congressional Research Service in its annual survey of international arms sales.
The United States ranked first in international arms transfer agreements last year, concluding 16.9 billion dollars worth of them around the world and securing 41.9 per cent of the market, according to the report.
The total represented a 3.4-billion-dollar increase over 2005.
Russia increased its world wide arms sales by 1.2 billion dollars, ending 2006 in second place with a total of 8.7 billion dollars in agreements, or 21.6 per cent of the market.
Britain came in third, but its arms exports grew a paltry 200 million over 2005 and the overall volume of arms transfer deals stood at just 3.1 billion dollars, less than a fifth of the US total.
All told, however, the United States, Russia and Britain controlled last year more than 71 per cent of international arms trade.
But the size of the market has shrunk as major buyers took a pause to absorb previous purchases.
Worldwide weapons orders, according to the report, declined from 46.3 billion dollars in 2005 to 40.3 billion last year, a reduction of nearly 13 per cent.
Meanwhile, Western Europe's market share decreased, according to the report, from 34.4 per cent to 19.1 per cent over the same period of time.
Richard Grimmett, the top national defense expert at the CRS and main author of the study, made it clear he saw growing competition from the United States as the main reason for the European Union's setback.