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Importers

An analysis of customs data suggests that for the period 2001 to 2007 five countries—Canada, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and the United States—routinely imported mall arms, light weapons, their parts, accessories, and ammunition worth USD 100 million or more per year. Customs data also suggests that eight additional countries imported at least USD 100 million or more in at least one year during this seven-year period: Australia, Cyprus, Egypt, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, and the United Kingdom. A review of customs data shows that Italy routinely imported more than USD 50 million per year from 2001 to 2007.

The United States is by far the biggest documented importer of small arms. During the seven-year period under review, US imports ranged from USD 571 million (in 2002) to more than USD 1 billion (in 2007). The next-largest recorded importer was Germany, averaging USD 110 million. The largest single-year value recorded for imports by a country other than the United States during this seven-year period was USD 261 million by Saudi Arabia (in 2001).

Note: This data does not reflect transfers to and from all countries. Moreover, it excludes trade in many categories of light weapons ammunition and light weapons systems. It does not take the rate of inflation into account.

» See annual import data

 

Small Arms Survey Publications

  • Small Arms Transfers: Importing States, November 2011. Research Note No. 12, Weapons and Markets (also available in Catalan and Spanish).

    Download (245.05 KB)

  • Skirting the Law: Post-CPA Arms Flows to Sudan, by Mike Lewis, September 2009. Working Paper No. 18 (also available in Arabic)

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  • The militarization of Sudan: a preliminary review of arms flows and holdings, April 2007. HSBA Issue Brief No. 6 (also available in Arabic)

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  • Buying the Bullet: Authorized Small Arms Ammunition Transfers, by  Anne-Kathrin Glatz, 2006. In Stéphanie Pézard and Holger Anders, eds. Targeting Ammunition: A Primer.

    Download (1.26 MB)

  • Making Global Public Policy: The Case of Small Arms and Light Weapons, by Edward Laurence and Rachel Stohl, December 2002. Occasional Paper No. 7

    Download (292.02 KB)

  • Small Arms Availability, Trade, and Impacts in the Republic of Congo, commissioned by IOM and the UNDP, by Spyros Demetriou, Robert Muggah and Ian Biddle, April 2002. Special Report No. 2

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Other Publications

  • Solmirano, Carina and Pieter D. Wezeman. 2010. Military Spending and Arms Procurement in the Gulf States. SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) Fact Sheet. October. Stockholm: SIPRI. 

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  • Holtom, Paul. 2009. Reporting Tranfers of Light Arms and Small Weapons to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, 2007. SIPRI Background Paper. Stockholm: SIPRI.

    More information

  • Holtom, Paul. 2008. Transparency in Transfers of Small Arms and Light Weapons: Reports to the United Nations Register for Conventional Arms 2003-2006. Policy Paper 22. Stockholm: SIPRI.

    More information
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Further Resources