| Abstract: | The strains that exist in commercial relations between the industrialized world (the North) and the developing world (the South), can be attributed to the over-simplified analysis brought to the dialogue by spokespersons from both groups. Spokespeople for the North talk in terms of the desirability of free trade without any recognition of the costs of adjustment which sharp increases in imports inflict. Southern spokespeople take the northern rhetoric at face value and believe that political pressures which impede southern exports are simple evidence of northern greed and intransigeance. If short-run costs of adjustment were to be explicitly recognized by both parties, it would again be possible for the two blocs to conduct a positive dialogue which would recognize the mutual benefits which can be derived from co-operation. |
