Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


With NATO Defense Buildup, US Weapons Makers Could Benefit

by Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON --

   With Thursday's renewed pledge by NATO countries to meet defense
   spending goals, some of the biggest beneficiaries could be U.S. weapons
   manufacturers, which annually already export billions of dollars worth
   of arms across the globe.

   As the annual NATO summit ended in Brussels, U.S. President Donald
   Trump claimed success in pushing NATO's 29 member states to meet their
   2024 goal of each year spending 2 percent of the size of their national
   economies on defense, to bolster NATO's readiness in the event of an
   attack from Russia or anyone else. Currently, only five countries -
   Britain, Estonia, Greece, Latvia and the U.S. - meet that standard.

   While any defense buildup would include an array of costs, such as
   paying for more troops and construction of military installations, some
   of the increased spending would likely go toward munitions, fighter
   jets, missiles and missile defense systems.

   The U.S. is already the world's biggest arms exporter, at 34 percent of
   the global total from 2013 to 2017. The State Department last year
   approved more than $75 billion in overseas sales of weaponry of one
   sort or another, topping the previous record of over $68 billion in
   2012. Those figures easily surpass weapons sales from the next two
   biggest arms exporters, Russia and China.

   Trade deficit buster?

   Some of the biggest weapons and fighter jet makers in the world are
   U.S. companies - Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon
   and General Dynamics, among them. But relatively small shares of their
   sales have in recent years been to European countries, which now may
   need to buy more U.S.-made munitions and jets to meet the NATO spending
   goal.

   Increased weapons sales to Europe could also reduce the current $151
   billion annual U.S. trade deficit with the European Union, which Trump
   assails as much as he has complained about lower European national
   defense expenditures compared to the U.S. in relationship to the size
   of their respective economies. The U.S. spends 3.5 percent of its
   economy on defense.

   Last year, according to the Security Assistance Monitor, which tracks
   arms sales trends, five NATO countries -- Poland, Canada, Romania,
   Britain and Greece -- were among the 20 largest U.S. arms buyers, with
   Saudi Arabia, at more than $17 billion, easily topping the list as the
   biggest U.S. weapons purchaser.

   During the 2013-2017 period, the Stockholm International Peace Research
   Institute reported that Asia and Oceania accounted for 42 percent of
   global weapons imports, with the Middle East at 32 percent, Europe at
   11 percent and Africa and the Americas at about 7 percent apiece.