The Changing Role of Developing Countries in International Trade

Abstract

It is only to be expected that the patterns of production and trade which underlie international economic relationships among countries will change over time. Sometimes this change is so slow as to allow the patterns themselves to be taken as constants; at other times the change is rapid enough to alter our conception of the world economy. Problems and issues in international trade are often identified with the problems of particular country groups. The identification of primary product export problems with developing countries is an obvious example. If, however, the world economy encounters a period of rapid change, this convenient identification of trade issues with country groups may be misleading. One such rapid change has occurred in the past decade. It is, therefore, appropriate to stop and ask whether these trade pattern changes have altered the interests of developing countries in agricultural and primary export trade.

The author is grateful to Richard J. Perkins and Nikos Alexandratos of FAO for several helpful discussions of this topic in the spring of 1985, while working with them on issues of agricultural trade. The trade statistics presented here are from the FAO, but the author alone is responsible for the interpretation given in this paper.