Trade matters

By Alex Singleton | 18 December 2005

The UK's Department for International Development has issued a surprisingly sound overview of international trade called Trade matters. It covers issues like: aren't imports the hidden catch with globalised trade?

After all, a developing country importing goods cheaper than its own workers produce means shoppers buy the cheap imports and so put their own producers out of business.

There's no denying this can happen. But at the same time, if a country has millions of people who are malnourished, then the chance to buy, say imported chicken at two-thirds of the price could mean the difference between a family eating and going hungry.

Imports change economic patterns, but we must not forget the benefits they bring - not just consumer goods such as food or home appliances, but the contribution they make to industry. Ugandan businesses may grow by buying computers from China. Angolan clothes shops can source garments from Vietnam. Factories in Cote D'Ivoire can import high-tech items from Germany. Without imports, people in developing countries would be denied vital medicines developed in the West.