Trade gap still far from being closed - UNCTAD

Accra, July 16, GNA - Although the expansion of world trade is stronger in developing countries than in developed nations, the different levels of participation in world trade indicates that the gap between the rich and the poor countries is still far from being closed. The new edition of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Handbook of Statistics for 2006, which noted this showed that world foreign trade turnover in goods in 2006 exceeded 12 billion dollars.

A release made available to the GNA on Monday said the figure represented an overall average of 1,850 dollars per capita but there were considerable variations from one continent to another. For example, per capita exports were less than $300 in Africa, as compared to a little more than 10,000 dollars in Europe. The Handbook provided information on the latest trends in globalization in the fields of international trade in goods and services, international financial flows and commodity prices. More comprehensive than previous versions, the new handbook incorporates initial results for 2006 of which the data supplemented the statistical series that UNCTAD calculates for long periods, some of which go back as far as 1948.

The Handbook noted that there were significant advances in 2006 in the export of goods (17.6%) and services (12.9%) by the developing countries, but at a less sustained pace than in the previous two years. It said steady progress was recorded in the share of regional trade in the overall trade in goods despite considerable variations. For example, in 2005, intra-regional trade rose to two-thirds of the total trade of the European Union, to 26% of the trade of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to 13% for the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) and only 9% for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

South-South trade was increasing, mainly owing to flows to or from Asia, and particularly among Asian countries.

In 1995, of the total of $1,400 billion in exports to the countries of the South, 40% came from other developing countries, including 2% from Africa, 5% from America and 33% from Asia.

Ten years later, the situation was practically identical for Africa (3%) and remains unchanged for America (5%), while Asia now accounts for 45% of exports to developing countries.

The boom in exports to Asia is taking place particularly in the context of trade among the countries of the region that accounted for 53% of exports to Asia in 2005 as compared with 41% in 1995. The African and American continents accounted for only 2% of the Asian market (1% in 1995), essentially owing to trade in commodities. The Handbook said it was in the East and South-East Asian countries that the development in the terms of trade was less favourable, which confirmed the trend noted in the UNCTAD.

Exports from the least developed countries were concentrated in a more restricted range of products, which can be a vulnerability factor. Nearly two-thirds of the merchant marine (in deadweight tons) flew a flag of a developing country, in other words, the number of vessels registered in developing countries has almost doubled over the past 30 years.

However, the Bahamas, Liberia and Panama, which were open-registry countries, account for 58% of the merchant fleet of developing countries and 37% of the world's merchant fleet. In 2005, the foreign exchange reserves of developing countries could finance eight months of their imports, as compared to five months 30 years earlier.

Direct investment flows to developing countries were equivalent to 3% of their GDPs in 2005, or double the FDI flows to developed countries.

With a 5.2% annual average increase in per capita GDP in real terms from 2000 to 2006, Asia stood out clearly from other developing countries (4.0%) and the world (1.8%).

The commodity price index calculated by UNCTAD indicated that at the end of the first quarter of 2007, prices had doubled as compared with 2000.

The index, which was calculated on the basis of the export structure of developing countries' exports, reflected the rise in the price of minerals, ores and metals that had been noted since the beginning of the decade and, to a lesser extent, a rise in the price of foodstuffs and raw materials of agricultural origin.