The current 2016 Report on Military Equipment Exports, which the Federal Government presented on 14 June 2017, shows that the responsible and restrictive policy on exports of military equipment was continued in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, individual export licences worth a total of €6.85 billion were issued (2015: €7.86 billion). The final overall figure for the licences is thus rather lower than had been indicated by the provisional licence figures for 2016 (€6.88 billion) which were published in January 2016.
For a well-grounded consideration of exports of military equipment, it is also vital to make distinctions in terms of the nature of the exported good, the ways it can be used, and the specific country of destination. For example, a large proportion (46.4%; 2015: 41%) went to licences for exports to EU/NATO and NATO-equivalent countries – countries to which, according to the Federal Government’s “Political Principles”, the export of military equipment is not normally subject to restriction.
Economic Affairs Ministry publishes interim report on the licences for exports of military equipment from the first four months of 2017
In addition to the annual report on the export of military equipment for 2016, the Federal Government also published on 14 June 2017 the interim report on export licences for military equipment in the first four months of 2017. The restrictive and responsible policy on the export of military equipment was continued in this period. In total, export licences worth €2.42 billion (2016: €3.30 billion) were issued up to the end of April 2017. Of this, €1.1 billion (approximately 46%) was accounted for by EU, NATO and NATO-equivalent countries.
German exports of military equipment down in the global comparison
According to calculations by SIPRI, the Stockholm-based peace research institute, Germany’s exports of military equipment dropped by 36% in the 2012 - 2016 period compared with the 2007 - 2011 period, whilst the global volume of military equipment exports rose by 8.4%. Germany registered the greatest drop amongst the 20 leading exporting countries in the past five-year period (source: SIPRI- Trends in international arms transfers, 2016, PDF: 526 KB.
Germany’s share of global exports of military equipment dropped from 9.4% to 5.6% between the afore-mentioned periods. Germany is ranked fifth by SIPRI on the list of leading exporters, behind the United States, Russia, China and France.