Arms Sales Decline Globally but U.S. Still Leads

Steven Lee Myers NY Times 6aug99

WASHINGTON -- The United States remained the world's biggest arms exporter in a sluggish market last year, as the weak economies in Asia and among oil producers in the Middle East dragged global sales to developing countries to their lowest level since 1991, according to an authoritative government report.

The report, released Thursday by the Congressional Research Service, an arm of the Library of Congress, showed that the United States negotiated new agreements to sell $7.1 billion worth of weapons in 1998, nearly 31 percent of the $23 billion in sales worldwide. The United States easily surpassed Germany, which sold $5.5 billion, and France, which had $3 billion in new sales.

The United States also led the world in delivering arms ordered in previous years, making $7.8 billion worth of deliveries in 1998.

Russia, which four years ago briefly knocked the United States out of the spot as the world's top arms merchant, has seen its exports steadily drop, despite increases in sales of fighter aircraft and other weapons to China. In 1998, Russia reached agreements to sell only $1.7 billion worth of arms, compared with $3.3 billion in 1997 and $5.3 billion in 1996.

The $23 billion in worldwide arms sales showed a slight increase over 1997, when the worst of the Asian economic crisis hit, but it was far below the levels in the early 1990s, when the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Persian Gulf war led to an arms-buying spree. In 1993, arms sales worldwide reached $37 billion.

Arms sales to the developing world -- defined as those countries outside Europe and excluding Russia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand -- dropped sharply overall. But the United States increased its sales to those countries to $4.6 billion, from $2.6 billion the year before.

The report predicted that the Asian economic troubles and the relatively low prices for crude oil would prolong the slump in arms purchases by developing countries, which until recently have accounted for a majority of international arms sales.

The report said Saudi Arabia, in particular, was struggling to keep up with purchases made earlier in the decade. It said the country, the world's largest arms buyer, "has even had problems meeting its monthly payments" for existing contracts.

Thomas A. Cardamone Jr., an analyst for the Council for a Livable World Education Fund, which advocates arms control, said the report's findings underscored the fact that the United States was continuing to put more arms into the hands of others than any other country.

He noted that United States retained its dominance of the international arms markets without any multi-billion-dollar sales being completed. Instead, most sales involved less costly items, including upgrades to existing systems.

"It's $7 billion worth of spare parts," he said. "Without a major arms sale last year, the U.S. still leads the world."

This dominance is likely to grow, he added, if the United States completes pending deals with Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Israel is to purchase $2.5 billion worth of F-16s, and the Emirates nearly $8 billion worth of the planes.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/080699arms-sales.html 21oct01