Small arms: Trade & brokering

Because of the immense havoc weapons and ammunition can wreak, any government that decides to export them must realize the profound international responsibility it has for every transfer it authorizes. Conversely, a government importing or procuring from national production must ensure that it will use these weapons only to provide for the safety and security of its citizens and that it has the capacity to safeguard all weapons and ammunition within its possession throughout their life cycles.

The trade in small arms is not well regulated and can be considered the least transparent of all weapons systems. In many countries, because of a lack of regulation and controls, it is too easy for small arms to fall into the hands of recipients who use them to commit violations of international humanitarian or human rights law or divert them to the illicit market through theft, leakage, corruption or pilferage.

Trade

The value of the global authorized trade in small arms and light weapons and their ammunition is estimated at more than $7 billion per year. The value of undocumented trade cannot be determined with any specificity, but may run in the billions as well. However, total transaction revenues tell only part of the story; countries often sell ageing and surplus arms for a fraction of their real value or give them away.

Global patterns of supply of small arms and light weapons have profoundly changed over the past decades. The vast majority of small arms are sold and transferred legally. However, changing patterns in the small arms trade have complicated controls. In the past, arms markets were relatively easy to survey, with far fewer supply outlets and less intermediate activity. Typically, orders were conducted and consignments delivered by State authorities or government agents.

Arms brokers

In recent decades, the arms trade has seen a shift from mostly direct contact between government officials
or agents to the ubiquitous use of private intermediaries, who operate in a particularly globalized environment,
often from multiple locations. Contemporary traders, agents, brokers, shippers and financiers regularly combine their activities,
making it difficult to clearly distinguish small arms trade from brokering and related activities.

Many countries have not enacted specific laws or regulations covering arms brokering within their systems of
arms export control and it is often unclear whether such activities are covered under other laws.

Investigations of arms embargo violations by the monitoring groups of the Security Council have exposed some international networks involved in the illicit trade and brokering of small arms. These brokers and dealers exploit legal loopholes, evade customs and airport controls and falsify anything from passports, end-user certificates, cargo papers to flight schedules.

Illicit activities by certain brokers and traders — and by the government officials they collude with — have violated every United Nations arms embargo, with small arms and ammunition as the main items transferred.

Trade

Arms brokers

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