ISSUE On POLECONOMY
ISSUE On POLECONOMY
ISSUE On POLECONOMY
WRITTEN OUTPUT
EXAMPLE:
According to a World Bank study, twenty-four developing countries that became
more integrated into the world economy in the 1980s and 1990s had higher
income growth, longer life expectancy, and better schooling. Per capita income in
these countries, home to half the world’s population, grew by an average of 5
percent in the 1990s compared with only 2 percent in rich countries. China, India,
Hungary, and Mexico are among the countries that adopted policies that allowed
their people to take advantage of global markets. As a result, they sharply
increased the amount of their GDP accounted for by trade. Real wages in these
countries rose and the number of poor people fell.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
International trade has a rich history starting with barter system being
replaced by Mercantilism in the 16th and 17th Centuries. The 18th Century
saw the shift towards liberalism. It was in this period that Adam Smith, the father
of Economics wrote the famous book ‘The Wealth of Nations’ in 1776 where in
he defined the importance of specialization in production and brought
International trade under the said scope. David Ricardo developed the
Comparative advantage principle, which stands true even today.
All these economic thoughts and principles have influenced the international
trade policies of each country. Though in the last few centuries, countries have
entered into several pacts to move towards free trade where the countries do not
impose tariffs in terms of import duties and allow trading of goods and services to
go on freely.
At the beginning of the 19th century, there was a shift to professionalism,
petering down by the end of the century. Around 1913, Western countries say a
major move towards economic freedom where quantitative restrictions were
abolished and customs duties across countries were reduced. All currencies
were freely convertible into gold, the exchange currency of the international
currency. Establishing business anywhere and finding employment was easy and
one can say that trade was really free between countries around this period.
The First World War changed the whole course of world trade and countries built
walls with wartime controls around themselves. Post-world war, as many as five
years have gone into dismantling wartime measures and returning to normal
trade. But then the economic recession in 1920 changed the world trade balance
again, and many countries experienced a shift in fortunes due to fluctuation of
their currencies and depreciation creating economic pressures on various
Governments to adopt protective mechanisms by adopting to raise customs
duties and tariffs.
Exports create jobs and boost economic growth. They give domestic companies
more experience in producing for foreign markets. Over time, companies gain
a competitive advantage in global trade. Trade also makes companies more
efficient. Research shows that exporters are more productive than companies
that focus on domestic trade.
Trade liberalization is based on the export led growth model which espouses the
economic benefits of exports to the national economy in the form of employment
creation, income generation, and as a contributor to economic growth. Indeed,
the concept of trade as an engine for growth has been an economic paradigm
that has been passed down from the trade theorems of the nineteenth century.
The contemporary vision of the new global economy embraces the promotion of
a free trade environment that encourages trade across national borders of goods
and services, the transfer of intellectual property, and the unregulated flow of
capital. In this respect, the modern phase of free global trade promotes an
ambitious agenda that includes not only trade and payments, but the whole
gamut of international transactions that effectively create an open, competitive,
and stable international environment.
GLOBALIZATION
o The integration of national economies into a global economic system has been
one of the most important developments of the last century. This process of
integration, often called Globalization, has materialized in a remarkable growth in
trade between countries.
3. It provides an opportunity for importing capital goods and materials required for
development purposes. The import of machinery, transport equipment, vehicles,
power generation equipment, road building machinery, medicines, chemicals and
other goods with high growth potential provides greater benefits to the
developing countries.
4. It is said that foreign trade helps to increase capital formation. Saving capacity
increases as real income increases through the more efficient allocation of
resources associated with international trade. Foreign trade also provides
incentives for investment, thereby increasing the rate of capital formation. This
stimulus stems from the possibility of increasing returns on wider markets
provided by foreign trade. In addition, by allowing economies of large scale
production, the access to foreign markets makes it profitable to adopt more
advanced techniques of production.
5. Another direct advantage of foreign trade for the economic development of
underdeveloped countries is that these countries can industrialize themselves by
importing necessary capital goods like machinery, semi-finished products and
industrial raw materials from industrialized developed countries.
In return, these countries can export primary goods and mineral resources
and thus solve the problem of balance of payments. In this way, import of capital
goods and export of primary goods are possible under foreign trade.