Manufactured Exports to LDCs

Abstract

The integration of LDCs into the international division of labour in industrial activities implies continuous shifts in the trade patterns between core and peripheral economies. The traditional colonial type of complementary trade, i.e. trading primary products in exchange for manufactures, has gradually been replaced by more competitive types of trade relations as LDCs are becoming exporters of manufactures. Besides the expansion of manufactured exports, the industrialisation in LDCs has also affected the pattern of their manufactured imports, which has both increased and experienced changes in product composition.