European Trade and Developing Countries: Summary and Conclusions

Abstract

The EC and the US have traditionally been the two most important destinations for exports from developing countries. Access to the markets of these highly industrialised countries has provided an avenue for enhancing economic development in quite a number of developing countries through integration into the international division of labour. Against this background, this study has attempted to answer two questions. First, has the EC been supporting developing countries’ efforts to expand their exports by keeping EC markets open to suppliers from the Third World? And second, as the EC is poised to become a single market by 1993, will internal EC integration facilitate or impede the division of labour between developing countries and the EC?