Trade
in sentence
11085 examples of Trade in a sentence
Huge bilateral
trade
deficits, accusations that China keeps its currency undervalued, and a rash of defective and dangerous Chinese-made exports have fueled a protectionist backlash in the United States and Europe.
It also includes leaks that genuinely prejudice intelligence methods and military operational effectiveness; expose exploratory positions in peace negotiations (invariably helping only spoilers); or disclose bottom lines in
trade
talks.
And that is not all; in value terms, global
trade
declined in 2015.
While global
trade
also fell in 2009, the explanation was obvious: The world was experiencing a sharp contraction in GDP at the time.
Moreover,
trade
barriers have not risen significantly anywhere, and transport costs are falling, owing to the sharp decline in oil prices.
Tellingly, the so-called Baltic Dry Index, which measures the cost of chartering the large ships that carry most long-distance trade, has fallen to an all-time low.
This indicates that markets do not expect a recovery, meaning that the data from 2015 could herald a new age of slowing
trade.
In fact, commodity prices are the key to understanding
trade
trends over the last few decades.
When they were high, they drove increased
trade
– to the point that the share of
trade
to GDP rose – fueling hype about the inevitable progress of globalization.
But in 2012, commodity prices began to fall, soon bringing
trade
down with them.
Clearly, there is a direct link between the trends in
trade
and commodity prices (see figure).
Given that this connection affects all manufactured goods that require raw material inputs, it should be no surprise that, as commodity prices have declined, so has global
trade.
One might argue that this example concerns only the value of trade, and that in recent decades, the growth of
trade
by volume also has exceeded that of real GDP growth.
But commodity prices affect
trade
volumes as well, because higher commodity prices force industrial countries to increase the volume of their exports (ten cars instead of five, in the example provided), in order to cover the costs of the same volume of raw material imports.
Because food, fuels, and raw materials comprise about a quarter of global trade, when their prices fluctuate – especially as strongly as they have in recent decades – aggregate
trade
figures are obviously affected.
Given the massive drop in commodity prices lately, there is little need to seek any other explanation for the recent slowdown in
trade.
This is not to say that globalization and
trade
are one and the same.
In fact, these other interconnections have fed back into trade, as they have enabled the emergence of global value chains, whereby different steps of the production process occur in different countries.
This is yet another reason why
trade
might diminish in importance.
If prices remain low, as seems likely, the next decade might well see global
trade
stagnate, as the
trade
pattern “rebalances” from emerging economies to the established industrial powers.
The benefits that emerging economies have reaped from expanding their presence in international
trade
and finance are but one example of this.
In the years ahead, such firms are likely to press for economic reforms at home, serving as a force for increased integration of their home countries into global
trade
and finance.
In contrast to international
trade
and monetary relations, no multilateral regime exists to promote and govern cross-border investment.
Despite the considerable progress that developing countries have made in integrating themselves into international
trade
and finance channels, there is still much work to be done to ensure that they share the burden of maintaining the global system in which they have a rapidly growing stake.
European policymakers are obsessed with national “competitiveness,” and genuinely appear to think that prosperity is synonymous with
trade
surpluses.
While imports must, of course, be financed by exports, the focus on
trade
competitiveness is drawing attention away from Europe’s underlying problem – very weak productivity growth.
And this is as serious a problem in the economies running
trade
surpluses as it is in those running deficits.
The
trade
balance is seen as a country’s “bottom line,” as if countries were firms.
In fact, they have little in common – the
trade
balance is simply the difference between domestic savings and investment or more broadly, between aggregate spending and output – but referring to Deutschland AG, or UK plc, is conceptually attractive and seductively easy.
There is a very strong correlation between rising labor productivity and economic growth, which holds for countries with
trade
surpluses as well as those with deficits.
Back
Next
Related words
Global
Countries
Would
Which
Economic
World
Their
Investment
International
Other
Growth
Could
Deficit
Policy
Should
Economy
About
Country
Between
While