International Trade and Economic Growth

Excerpts from the report: As the world's largest trading country, the United States is vitally interested in the prospects of increased trade potentials growing out of sustained economic growth in foreign countries. Since foreign economic growth and trade expansion may be major factors affecting continued economic growth in the United States, it is vitally important that more knowledge be gained about the interrelationships of foreign economic growth, international trade, and market potentials for U.S. farm products. The objective of this paper is to examine the basic relationships between economic growth and trade as a basis for evaluating the effects of increased incomes in foreign countries on trade with the United States. More specifically, trade and income data will be examined for different groups of countries at different stages of development for 1959 and 1960 as a basis for evaluating market potentials for U.S. agricultural products with continued economic growth abroad. These 2 years were chosen for a cross-sectional analysis of income and trade data since these years seem indicative of future economic conditions at home and abroad. In addition, more income and trade data were available for more countries for these years than for later years.