International Trade 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

International Trade 1 - Essay Example United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA’s ERS) report says that during the period 2000 to 2004 the world economy grew from $39190 billion to $43363 billion. (www.ers.usda.gov). WTO report says that the Asian region recorded an export growth of 14.5 in 2004. Real merchandise imports in South America grew by 18.5 per cent, which was twice as fast as world trade in 2004. Africa’s trade expanded strongly in 2004. North America’s export recovery, which started in 2003, gained momentum in 2004. The enlargement process of the European Union towards the east fostered an integration process between central and Eastern Europe resulting in sharp rise in intra – industry exchanges, e.g. automobiles. The GDP growth of Asia more than doubled from 2.37 percent in 2001 to 5.42 percent in 2004. Thus, growth of an economy automatically increases the economic components like exports and trade The major chunk of merchandise trading, after oil, around the globe happens in iron and steel, ores, non-ferrous metals and fuels. The growth of this sector also contributes to the growth of global trade. Historically the US has been the major importer of iron and steel, ores and non-ferrous metals. The growth in real estate and construction industry fuelled this need for iron and steel. Being the largest manufacturer of goods also made the US the largest consumer of non-ferrous metals like copper and aluminium. With the emergence of China, the consumption of non-ferrous base metals has gone up drastically. Chinese imports of the metals have increased to extent, where the demand has overshot the production. This increased the prices of base metals like copper. The price of copper in the London Exchange in April 2000 was around $ 1600 per metric tonne and in April 2004 it was around $2200 per metric