Third World Boosting Weapons Exports, Swedish Study Reports

Third World countries have dramatically boosted their arms exports since the early 1970s and are increasingly selling weapons to the industrialized world, including the United States, according to a study published Friday.

In a book entitled “Arms Production in the Third World,” the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute included South Africa and Israel in its list of countries.

But the increase still is evident, even if these two countries were excluded, and the list of Third World nations producing major weapons was still growing.

Brazil and Israel together accounted for more than 75% of total exports, followed by South Korea, South Africa, Indonesia, Singapore, Egypt and Argentina.

The study valued total Third World production of major weapons between 1950 and 1984 at $12.7 billion, with rapid growth in the 1970s. The institute put total exports of major weapons from the Third World between those years at $1.57 billion, with a major surge between 1980 and 1984.

In Brazil, the largest Third World exporter, the arms industry is so advanced that Brazilian weapons may soon go into production under license in the United States, in a reversal of the traditional relationship.

Thomas Ohlson, co-editor of the book with Michael Brzoska, said that U.S. companies were involved in advanced negotiations to build an armored car developed by a Brazilian firm. He added, “This cooperation may eventually extend to the joint development of a new tank for the 1990s.”

Ohlson said two U.S. companies are seeking a license to build a training aircraft, which a Brazilian manufacturer had already sold to Britain and Canada.

The institute, an independent body financed by the Swedish Parliament, operates what it describes as the world’s only public databank on the international arms trade.