Abstract EN:

France is a very important arms exporter. It usually ranks third behind the states and the ex-ussr. However, for a few years, the french arms industry has been facing structural and economic difficulties which threaten its activity therefore, france must define a new expansion stratgy and increase its extra and intra european cooperation. On a juridical level, france doesn't export arms causing heavy destruction such as nuclear, biological and chemical weapons subjected to legal ban in accordance with international agreements. The unilateral limitations on arms exports in france concern warring and repressive countries. They hinge on the principle of neutrality and on the respect of human rights. So called strategic technologies are also subjected to a national control within the context of the general regulation on foreign trade and to a multilateral inter-allied control organized by the cocom. In france, exports of warmaterials are subjected to a special and prohibitive legislation and to a specific control carried out by the "commission interministrielle pour l'etude des exportations de materiel de guerre the export of war materiel is a complex commercial transaction. The contract which deals with the sale determine precise juridical, technical and financial clauses. Cooperation, as far as armament is concerned, is another major line of the french policy and a possible answer to the present difficulties of the french arms industry. It takes a modest form with developing countries and a more developed, structured and integrated form with european countries. Its juridical organization lies on an intergovernmental agreement concluded at a state level which sets up the basis of a double cooperation and on an industrial agreement which defines working conditions between the firms of the concerned countries. The way it works causes serious problems as far as methodologgy and organization are concerned but it represents a necessity both economic and political for an average power such as franc