Farnborough is Shop Window for Deadly Weapons
Repressive regimes and countries in conflict are among the military delegations are attending the 2010 Farnborough Air Show. Algeria, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia will attend, having been invited by the UK government. Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) says that the presence of such countries makes a mockery of the system of arms export controls, which supposedly restrict arms sales to responsible countries.
While negotiations for an Arms Trade Treaty take place in New York, Coalition Government ministers will be participating in trade days at Farnborough. Vince Cable, Business Secretary, with overall responsibility for the government arms sales unit, UK Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO), was also there on Monday 19 July. Defence Minister Liam Fox, who has explicitly stated that arms sales should be a foreign policy tool, attended on Tuesday 20 July.
CAAT has long opposed government subsidies for arms sales, which amount to hundreds of millions of pounds annually, through Research and Development funding, generous procurement policies and government backed insurance, in addition to sales support through UKTI DSO. Arms sales do not bring the many benefits for employment and exports so often claimed by supporters. Arms trade jobs account for only 0.2% of the UK workforce and comprise only 1.5% of exports. Each arms trade job is subsidised by at least £9,000 a year. CAAT’s Research Co-ordinator, Ian Prichard, says:
The UK arms industry uses Farnborough as a shop window for its deadly trade and the UK government welcomes customers through the doors. In the same way that it supports arms sales in general, the Government provides funding, expertise and contacts to make Farnborough happen.
The weekend air show is the window dressing which attracts the crowds but on the previous five days the show is strictly business. Contacts are made and weaponry deals are negotiated in private chalets arrayed as grandstands for the air displays. Invited customers include the militaries of Algeria, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Do the crowds thrilling at the aerobatics realise that they are just witnessing the closing ceremony of a week of indiscriminate arms selling?
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