Globalization and International Trade

The world is getting sliced into three categories where years ago one might have thought of the English French and other European powers. Japan is one market onto itself. Toyota is emblematic of the country it represents to such an extent that care was taken to remove recent defective cars on the market to save face from being disqualified as a world leader in auto sales. There is North America with the US attempting to gain further inroads into the South American markets and then there is Europe, the European Union and its satellite nations.

The world trade grew ten fold from 1950 to 1975 just before the US historic visit to China to open up world markets there. From 1975 to 2000 world trade increased but only five fold. It is said that growth increased but to a lesser extent as there was a change occurring among the developing nations that were now becoming more self-sufficient and requiring less finished products they needed as before their modern industrialization occurred.

The increased international trade may have worked better for some countries than others. The UK can be used as an example where at about 2009 the value of its exports and imports rose to one half of its output of goods and services.  The UK’s  chemical industry did not do as well during the recession as other countries that had more trading outlets. Dependence is reflected in trading to the UK which needed suppliers for those finished chemicals and at the same time that country need customers to buy those products but did not do well as expected because of the recession and the falling value of the American dollar abroad or because of slowed economic growth due to weaking western currencies in general. A major contributor to the GDP of the UK is its manufacturing sector eg. pharmaceutical and aerospace( including chemical manufacturing) at 26 % which used to be stronger in the 20th century before other western industrialized countries started to compete with its share of market.

China is doing better with its exports and imports at two thirds of its GDP in 2009. This means that this country is more active on the world trade scene than it once was when the British controlled the coastal city of Hong Kong.