Special gains from trade with socialist countries: The case of Tanzania

Trade does not necessarily benefit all trading partners and heavy dependence on trade is a precarious matter. Trade with socialist countries could confer special advantages on Third World trading partners thus making a net benefit more likely. However this requires conditions in which trade ceases to be ‘mere exchange of commodities’ and becomes an element of planned economic integration. Given a non-planned Third World country like Tanzania and given recent approaches to international trade by most socialist countries, it is not surprising that Tanzania is shown to have derived no particular benefits from its trade with the socialist countries. The trade was merely an exchange of commodities, with the possible exception of the trade with China.