International Trade Theories

INTERNATIONAL TRADE THEORIES

One of the avenues to address this is to seek help from the Embassy of the other country. For example, if the Canadian Embassy in South Korea will not help a Canadian find information on importing some product from South Korea, you can simply go to the office of the South Korean (ROK) Consulate in Toronto or the Korean Embassy in Ottawa and their staff will be pleased to provide assistance.

Adam Smith said - each nation should specialize in producing things it has an "absolute advantage" . The theory of "Absolute Advantage" seems to make sense in situations where the circumstances of the geographic and economic environment are relatively simple and straight forward - example: - Switzerland and watches, Canada and cereal grain.

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In most cases, a straight-forward Absolute Advantage does not exist in the real world. Some countries may have an advantage in one commodity, and also a slight advantage in another commodity - however there is still an opportunity for them to trade.

In 1817, David Ricardo looked at Adam Smith's theory and suggested that "there may still be global efficiency gains from trade if a country specializes in those products that it can produce more efficiently than other products - regardless of whether other countries can produce those same products even more efficiently"

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The Theory of Factor Endowments