The balance in balance

An exclusive article for the montlhy newsletter “En la mira – The Latin American Small Arms Watch.” Click here for subscriptions and for previous issues.

The balance in balance: exports and imports of small arms and light weapons (SALW), parts and ammunition in Latin America and the Caribbean 2000-2006. 1 

1. Introduction:

Although all countries, in theory report their authorized transfers - and such information may even be available in certain public databases - the task of providing an overview of SALW transfers, their parts and munitions, is an arduous one. 2  Nonetheless, despite the difficulties, we have some extremely positive initiatives on a global scale, such as for example, the Small Arms Survey, recognized as an important source of information, especially on SALW production and transfers, as well as the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers (NISAT) which has a database containing transfer records going back to 1962.

Despite these important initiatives, themselves when researchers, activists and policy makers try to understand a regional market, such as Latin America and the Caribbean, they encounter a dearth of information. With the intent of addressing this shortcoming, En La Mira has, since 2007, dedicated an issue to transfers of SALWs, parts and ammunition in this region. 3  

Further, according to statistics from the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN-Comtrade or Comtrade), USD 6.7 billion were exported between 2004 and 2006, while USD 6.5 billion were imported. 4  Despite the fact that Latin America and the Caribbean represent 6% and 3%, respectively, of total transfers worldwide during this period, 42% of firearms related homicide is committed in the region. 5 This discrepancy between the international transfer volume share and the levels of arms-related violence in Latin America and the Caribbean calls attention to itself, above all because of the tragic and startling number of homicides.

Obviously, far from wishing to increase arms transfers in order to be more in sync with homicide rates, we decided, a year ago, to study this issue and periodically monitor its development based on our interest in understanding the primary legal entry and exit routes of firearms and ammunition. The result is a report - based on customs information as stated by Latin American and Caribbean countries and their respective partners - whose objective is to describe the movement of the SALW imports and exports, as well as ammunition and parts, during the present decade. 6  Based on this data, we answer the following questions: who exported and who imported? From whom? What? And when?

It is worth restating that the intent of this report is not to explain the cause of arms imports and exports by Latin American countries. Beyond merely providing information, we do indeed wish to awaken, by means of the information presented here, the curiosity of other researches, activists and government staff members such that they may continue to perform research in their countries regarding the transparency of this information, on who is using the transferred SALW, and how.

The data used for this report came from the NISAT database, which contains more than 800,000 entries for SALW transfers worldwide since 1962. The NISAT database gets its information from different sources, COMTRADE among them. 7  In this study we decided to restrict ourselves to data from this latter source because, in theory, all countries report transfers to the UN. This data is declared in accordance with the Harmonized System (SH) merchandise classification system. 8  The HS has existed since 1988and, in 2007, was revised for the fourth time; previous revisions were in 1992, 1996 and in 2002. Regarding the period analyzed, we are looking at data up until 2006, since at the time the study closed this was the most recent year available on NISAT.
 

In this study we work with values expressed as US dollars (USD), since the majority of countries declares transfersin  tonnage and/or  in USD.Only a minority of countries reports the quantities of units transferred.  An important point to be considered is related to the  HS tariff codes the study uses. SALWs, their parts, and ammunition were categorized by type, and each type corresponds to a code or group of codes within the HS. The types were classified according to a standard similar to that used by NISAT. 

Table 1 - classification of SALWs, ammunition and parts:

Besides not containing information on quantities, the COMTRADE data is limited due to changes in the classification system and underreporting or misreporting of certain categories by some countries. Allegations of " national security" are the most common excuses by customs to not supply COMTRADE with information regarding imports and exports destined to the Armed Forces and public security agencies. Generally, this data corresponds to HS codes 9301.00 (military weapons) and 9301.90 (military firearms).

Prior to 2002, on the other hand, all conventional firearms, including heavy weapons (such as artillery equipment, for example), were mixed within the 9301.00 code. Starting in 2002, the HS began to discern, among military weapons codes, codes 9301.90 (which includes small weapons such as machine guns, submachine guns, assault rifles and military rifles) and code 9301.20 (which includes light weapons such as grenade launchers, portable antitank weapons, etc.)Therefore, starting in 2002, whenever countries so declare, it is possible to separate light and small conventional weapons from heavy weapons. Prior to 2002, there was the risk that, within code 9301.00, there existed data on heavy weapons. In order to mitigate this problem, the information declared in code 9301.00 was compared with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) database on international transfers of heavy conventional weapons. The values from the NISAT and SIPRI databases that could be cross-referenced were excluded from the sample, as indicated in the report footnotes.  9

Beyond these problems, there are limitations related to underreporting and misclassification of data, something that was discovered in certain studies carried out in the past. When identified, these misktakes were flagged and corrected; however this was not done systematically. The objective of this report is not to analyze discrepancies (which do exist and are quite common) between that declared by the importers and exporters. As already mentioned, our objective is to show the data as declared to the UN and by the authorities of the region's countries. Indeed, we have limited ourselves to pointing out the serious anomalies that could lead to serious errors of interpretation, such as the fact, for example, that the region's larger producer of handguns (Brazil) does not systematically declare its exports of pistols and revolvers. Something else to keep in mind, is that the sporting and hunting rifle code generally  may include imports and exports of hunting rifles, which are in fact semi-automatic  versions of assault rifles.

This report is divided into two parts: The first analyzes the trade balance of SALWs, ammunition and parts between Latin America and the Caribbean and the rest of the world according to importer, exporter and product. The second part is a supplement that presents statistical data on transfers by country of the region on a case-by-case basis.

Click here to read the entire report.

Click here to read the annex of South America.

Click here to read the annex of Mexico and Central America.

Click here to read the annex of the Caribbean.

1  In this study the acronym SALW (Small Arms and Light Weapons) will be used when referring to firearms. For more information regarding the definition of this term, please see: Small Arms Survey. Small Arms Survey 2001: Profiling the Problem. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.8.

2  By authorized international SALW transfers, we refer to the movement of small arms and light weapons (SALWs), their ammunition, parts and accessories across national borders that have been authorized or have received the necessary permits from the applicable governments. These arms are being sent from countries with the knowledge and consent of importer, exporter, or intermediary States. Such consignments would normally require at least an export permit or authorization (despite there being exceptions to this rule), as well as other types of documents.  Generally speaking, authorized international transfers include the following: For-profit sales by private or state industries, as well as the intermediaries of private or state buyers; sales of arms sold by a State, or sales of arms held by a State on behalf of a foreign State institution, to be used by State institutions for national defense, law enforcement or security-related activities.; SALWs sent abroad for testing purposes or as samples with the objective of facilitating a possible commercial transaction or State to State transaction; SALWs sent from one government to another without involving a sale, for the purpose of aiding the recipient country's Armed Forces or Police; SALWs sent to allied or friendly countries to be used as part of a training program or for military exercises; SALWs sent by a State to its peacekeeping forces on foreign missions; SALWs sent abroad for repairs; returns of surplus arms (without involving the sale) to the original industry or exporter country (for example, an industry might receive old arms as part of an agreement for the supply of new ones); the return of rented or loaned items to the original country that rented or loaned them; weapons sent by a governmental institution to its foreign agents for different peacekeeping purposes, including training.

Regarding this definition see: Small Arms Survey, Small Arms Survey 2001: Profiling the Problem, Oxford, Oxford University Press, p.142

3  En La Mira. 2007. ‘The balance in balance: Exportation and importation of small arms and light weapons, their parts and ammunition in Latin America and the Caribbean 2000 – 2005’. En la Mira – Latin American Small Arms Watch. Nº 12, Volume 2, August 2007. Accessible here.  

4  With reference to HS 2002. COMTRADE database query. See: United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN-COMTRADE). 2008. Database. New York: United Nations Statistics Division. Accessed August 2008. Click here to access the official website of Comtrade

5  Small Arms Survey, Small Arms Survey 2004, Oxford, Oxford University Press, p.176.

6  When we refer to Latin America and the Caribbean, we are talking about the following countries and territories: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Olivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Granada, Guatemala, Guiana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela; Unincorporated Territory of USA: Puerto Rico; USA dependencies; American Virgin Islands; French Overseas Departments and Territories: French Guiana, Guadalupe and Martinique;  independent Netherlands territories: Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles; and British colonies: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Turks and Caicos Islands. There are 32 countries and 14 territories under foreign administration, a total of 46 different entities. For the purpose of this report we refer to all these political entities using the generic term "country".  

7  For further information regarding COMTRADE data, See: Small Arms Survey. 2005 Reaching for the Picture: An update on Small Arms Transfers. In Small Arms Survey. Small Arms Survey 2005: Weapons at War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 99.

8  World Customs Organization (WCO). 2008. HS Nomenclature. Brussels: WCO.
Accessed in August 2008. Click here to have access to that information. 

9  Special thanks for the work done by the NISAT team whose painstaking efforts made possible the code 9301.00 data treatment presented here. Without such attention the quality of this study would not be the same. Information on methodology: Dreyfus, Pablo; Marsh, Nicholas; Nascimento, Marcelo. 2006. Tracking the guns: international diversion of small arms to illicit markets in Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro and Oslo: Viva Rio and NISAT. pp. 29-32. Click here if you wish to have access to this report.