UK tops US as arms exporter, Canada high on import list

Heck, the UK under a Labour government is now doing better than the US under George Bush:

The UK was the top global defence exporter in 2007, winning a UK record £10 billion ($19bn) of new business and a 33% market share, according to figures announced by UK Trade & Investment’s Defence and Security Organisation (UKTI DSO) today.

Commenting on the figures, Lord Digby Jones, Minister for Trade and Investment said, “As demonstrated by this outstanding export performance, the UK has a first class defence industry, with some of the world’s most technologically sophisticated companies...

The top global exporters over the last five years, based on cumulative export values, are the United States with $63bn, the UK ($53bn), Russia ($33bn), France ($17bn), and Germany and Israel with ($9bn).

Comparatively, on imports over the last five years, Saudi Arabia has imported the most ($31bn); India second ($18bn); the US ($17bn), and three countries - Australia ($11bn), Canada ($10bn) [emphasis added] and Pakistan - ($6bn) moving up the import rankings...

I think one can thank the Conservative government's military re-equipment actions for our high import rank (now if only we would import some naval vessels)--but can you imagine the Conservatives, much less the Liberals, boasting about Canadian arms exports?

As for the naval vessels, build the AORs ourself and import all or most of one or two big honkers (see the penultimate paragraph here). Like the Aussies.

H/t to Jack MacLeod.