Worldwide spending on weapons is expected to reach record levels this year at a time when the arms industry is increasingly able to avoid export controls, say human rights and aid agencies in a report published yesterday.
By the end of the year, military spending is estimated to reach $1,058 billion, (€0.83 billion) about 15 times the amount spent on international aid, say Amnesty, Oxfam, and the International Action Network on Small Arms.
The figure is higher than the cold war record reached in 1987-88 of $1,034 billion in today's prices, they claim, adding that last year the US, Russia, Britain, France and Germany accounted for an estimated 82 per cent of all arms transfers.
Other countries are emerging as important arms exporters. Brazil, India, Israel, Singapore, South Africa, and South Korea all have arms companies in the world's top 100, Amnesty says.
In their report, Arms without Borders, the agencies claim US, EU, and Canadian companies can get around arms regulations by selling weapons components and subcontracting arms manufacturing to companies overseas. Weapons, including attack helicopters and combat trucks, are being assembled from foreign components and manufactured under licence in countries including China, Egypt, India, Israel and Turkey. The report shows how these or similar weapons have ended up in Colombia, Sudan and Uzbekistan.
The report says that the EU has an arms embargo against China, and the US and Canada have banned the sale of armed helicopters to Beijing.
Yet China's new Z-10 attack helicopter would not fly without weapons parts and technology from an Anglo-Italian company (Augusta Westland), the Canadian firm Pratt and Whitney Canada, a US company (Lord Corporation) and a Franco-German company (Eurocopter).
The report says China has previously sold attack helicopters to a number of countries, including Sudan, which is under a full EU arms embargo.
The Apache helicopter, used by Israel in the Lebanon conflict, is made from 6,000 parts manufactured worldwide, including Ireland, the UK, and Netherlands. Under the EU's code of conduct, those countries should refuse to export attack helicopters directly to Israel, the agencies say.