Minerals in the earth's crust are not evenly distributed in all regions. Many regions that possess resources do not have the means to put them to economic uses, and other regions that have the means to bring about profitable uses do not have the resources. Thus, a substantial portion of international trade involves the movement of resources from countries that have them to countries that do not.
International trade in raw materials is influenced by two counteracting forces. First, industrialization and declining transportation costs have stimulated international trade. Second, scientific discoveries and the development of synthetic substitutes have minimized the use of some natural materials and eliminated the use of others completely, depressing international trade.
Although the end result of the interaction of these two forces has been favorable to the goods-producing countries, the future is not as certain as some observers tend to think. In addition to the limits to growth argument, which warns of the finiteness of most nonrenewable resources, there is the argument that the decline in prices of natural resources leaves the material-exporting countries with less revenue with which to buy products from the goods-producing countries.
- 2151 reads
