Business is booming for the United States in the foreign arms market. Even with a faltering economy and a slump in overall global arms sales, according to a Congressional study, the U.S. increased its annual market share to more than two-thirds of all foreign arms deals in 2008. In a nutshell, that means that 68.4 percent of arms trades involve U.S. sales. This is great news in some circles, but not to the millions of Americans who are unemployed.Topping the list of buyers in the developing world last year were the United Arab Emirates, which signed $9.7 billion in arms deals, Saudi Arabia, which signed $8.7 billion in weapons agreements, and Morocco, with $5.4 billion in arms purchases.
New York Times:
Despite a recession that knocked down global arms sales last year, the United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals, according to a new Congressional study.The annual report was produced by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, a division of the Library of Congress. It is widely regarded as the most detailed collection of unclassified global arms sales data available to the general public. To read more, CLICK HERE.
The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before.
Italy was a distant second, with $3.7 billion in worldwide weapons agreements in 2008, while Russia was third with $3.5 billion in arms sales last year — down considerably from the $10.8 billion in weapons deals signed by Moscow in 2007.
The growth in weapons sales by the United States last year was particularly noticeable against worldwide trends. The value of global arms sales in 2008 was $55.2 billion, a drop of 7.6 percent from 2007 and the lowest total for international weapons agreements since 2005.
Photo credit: MSNBC
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire