-THERE IS A SERIES OF TERMS OF REFERENCE AT MY AWARD-WINNING WEBSITE ON THE SUBJECT OF ARMS SALES.WASHINGTON (AP)--World trade in weapons is dropping fast while the United States for the first time is making more than half of all sales, a U.S. government agency reported Wednesday.
Worldwide trade fell 29 percent in 1994, the latest year for which figures are complete. Sales dropped to $22 billion, from 28.4 billion the year before, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency said in its annual report.
U.S. arms exports of $12.4 billion accounted for 56 percent of the total, said the report, "World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers." Experts say the trends have continued since then, with some tapering off of U.S. sales and some increase by France.
Last August the Congressional Research Service reported that France had dislodged the United States in 1994 as the leading purveyor of arms to the Third World, signing $11.4 billion worth of sales in the year, compared with $6.1 billion for the United States.
The new report, however, says sales agreements are "more erratic and less reliably estimated than deliveries." It covers actual deliveries of weapons, whether sold or given away.
Richard F. Grimmett of the congressional agency said 1994 was an unusual year for French arms contracts. The French signed agreements for a multibillion dollar series of frigates to Saudi Arabia, submarines to Pakistan and fighter planes to Qatar.
"Those take years to build and deliver, so figures on contracts and deliveries are bound to be different," Grimmett said.
In 1989, the Soviet Union exported more arms than the United States. During much of the Cold War, the Soviets gave clients easy terms. In its last years the Soviet Union began asking payment in hard currency, a practice continued by the Russian government.
"The Russians are not giving things away anymore," said Joel Johnson, vice president of the Aerospace Industries Association. "So the U.S. share of the market has gone up."
The arms control agency's figures show that U.S. transfers dropped from $16.9 billion worth in 1989 to the $12.4 billion worth in 1994 but the market has shrunk even faster, so the American share has risen.
Russia was still the third largest exporter, after the United States and Britain. Britain transferred $3.4 billion worth, Russia $1.3 billion, China and France $800 million each. Germany was in sixth place with arms trade worth $700 million.
Saudi Arabia remains the world's biggest weapons
importer--$5.2 billion worth in 1994, followed by Egypt with
$1.5 billion, and Israel $1 billion worth, largely from the
United States, which itself imported $1.1 billion in weaponry.
(text of July 5, 1996 Korea Herald article)
-THERE IS A SERIES OF TERMS OF REFERENCE AT MY AWARD-WINNING WEBSITE ON THE SUBJECT OF ARMS SALES.
THIS ANTICIPATES WHETHER, IN FACT, AS PER THE 1978 BASIS OF UNDERSTANDING I HAD WITH JIMMY CARTER AND THE OTHER AUTHORITIES INVOLVED THAT I WOULD PREPARE A BOOK ABOUT THIS "INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC WORK...ON A DIRECT BASIS" FOR THE WORLD'S CHILDREN WHEN I WAS FINISHED WITH IT...HE/THEY IS/ARE GOING TO PROVIDE ME WITH COPIES OF THE 1978 DOCUMENTS SO THAT I...DON'T HAVE TO ASK DR. KURT WALDHEIM FOR COPIES.
THERE IS, IN THIS REGARD, A PARTICULAR STATEMENT TO THEN-PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA PIERRE E. TRUDEAU THAT EXPLAINED TO HIM THAT ONE OF THE GOALS OF THE WORK WAS TO "END THE ARMS RACE."
I RECALL I MADE SURE THAT THE STATEMENT TO HIM WAS IN HIS HANDS TO COINCIDE WITH THE WALDHEIM SPEECH THAT ECHOED THAT PARTICULAR CHOICE OF WORDS TO DESCRIBE FUTURE UNITED NATIONS GOALS.
THAT SAID, WHILE I HAVEN'T FORMALLY ASKED THOSE PARTICULAR AUTHORITIES YET FOR THAT DOCUMENTATION, I DRAW TO THE ATTENTION OF VISITORS TO MY AWARD-WINNING WEBSITE WHAT YOU FIND IF YOU TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
ON THE SUBJECT OF JIMMY CARTER AND THE CONTEMPORARY AUTHORITIES INVOLVED AND (NORTH) KOREA, TAKE YOUR NEXT FOOTSTEP HERE.