Forms of international economic relations
The country's balance of payments and its structure
1. International trade in goods and services. Technology as a commodity on the world market.
2. International monetary relations.
3. International labor migration.
4. Balance of payments of the country. Structure of the balance of payments.
5. Trends in the development of international economic relations in the 21st century. Prospects for the participation of the Republic of Belarus in international economic relations.
Introduction
Currently, the process of globalization and integration of various countries into the world economic community is flourishing. Now it is impossible to imagine a world without all kinds of interrelations between countries in matters of trade in goods, services, technologies, etc. At the same time, financial and credit relations between countries in the global economic space are becoming increasingly important. International financial and credit organizations (for example, the IMF) are created that mediate such relations. All these factors determine the relevance of this issue, especially since the development prospects for the Republic of Belarus are a maximally open economy, the development of trade and credit and financial relations with various countries of the world, which will undoubtedly have a beneficial effect on the economy of our country.
International trade in goods and services. Technology as a commodity on the world market.
International trade is the exchange of goods and services between different countries, associated with the general internationalization of economic life and the intensification of the international division of labor in the conditions of the scientific and technological revolution.
Foreign trade arose in ancient times. In formations based on subsistence farming, a small portion of products entered international exchange, mainly luxury goods, spices, and some types of mineral raw materials.
A powerful stimulus for the development of international trade was the transition from subsistence farming to commodity-money relations, as well as the creation of national states and the establishment of production ties both within countries and between them.
The creation of large-scale industry made it possible to make a qualitative leap in the development of productive forces in international trade. This led to an increase in the scale of production and improved transportation of goods, i.e. preconditions were created for the expansion of economic and trade relations between countries, and at the same time the need to expand international trade increased. At the present stage, international trade is the most developed form of international economic relations. Its necessity is due to the following factors:
Firstly, the formation of the world market as one of the historical prerequisites of the capitalist mode of production;
Secondly, the uneven development of individual industries in different countries; products of the most dynamically developing industries, which cannot be sold on the domestic market, are exported abroad;
Thirdly, the tendency that has arisen at the current stage of economic development towards limitless expansion of production volumes, while the capacity of the domestic market is limited by the effective demand of the population. Therefore, production inevitably outgrows the limits of domestic demand, and entrepreneurs in each country wage a stubborn struggle for foreign markets.
Consequently, the interest of individual countries in expanding their international relations is explained by the need to sell products on foreign markets, the need to obtain certain goods from outside and, finally, the desire to extract higher profits due to the use of cheap labor and raw materials from developing countries.
There are a number of indicators that characterize a country’s activity in world trade:
1. Export quota – the ratio of the volume of exported goods and services to GDP/GNP; at the industry level, this is the share of goods and services exported by the industry in their total volume. Characterizes the degree of inclusion of the country in foreign economic relations.
2. Export potential is the share of products that a certain country can sell on the world market without damaging its own economy.
3. Export structure - the ratio or share of exported goods by type and degree of processing. The structure of exports allows us to highlight the raw materials or machine-technological orientation of exports and determine the country’s role in international industrial specialization.
Thus, a high share of manufacturing products in a country’s exports, as a rule, indicates a high scientific, technical and production level of the industries whose products are exported.
4. Import structure, especially the ratio of the volumes of raw materials imported into the country and finished final products. This indicator most accurately reflects the dependence of the country’s economy on the foreign market and the level of development of sectors of the national economy.
5. Comparative ratio of the country’s share in world GDP/GNP production and its share in world trade. So, if a country’s share in the world production of any type of product is 10%, and its share in international trade of this product is 1-2%, then this may mean that the goods produced do not meet the world level of quality as a consequence of the low level of development of this industry.
6. The volume of exports per capita characterizes the degree of openness of the economy of a given state.
The world's largest exporters include Germany, Japan, USA, France, Great Britain, and Italy. Among the developing countries, it is necessary to highlight the so-called “newly industrialized countries” of Southeast Asia (NIC SEA), namely: Hong Kong (Hong Kong), South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, whose total exports exceed those of France, as well as China in the Middle East - Saudi Arabia, in Latin America - Brazil and Mexico. These countries occupy approximately the same position in world imports. The world's largest importer is the United States.
The export and import of services (invisible exports) play an important role in international trade:
1) all types of international and transit transport;
2) foreign tourism;
3) telecommunications;
4) banking and insurance;
5) computer software;
6) health care and education services, etc.
With a decrease in the export of some traditional services, there is an increase in services related to the use of scientific and technological advances.
The natural properties of many goods (beef, oranges, mineral fuels) are more or less similar. The main factor in their competitiveness is price, or rather the costs of production, storage and transportation. These costs are determined by the cost of labor and the level of labor productivity, which largely depends on the technical equipment of production.
The main form of struggle for markets for such goods is price competition.
The basis of competition in the market of finished products is the consumer properties of the product. This is largely due to the fact that the quality of finished products is variable.
We can highlight one more type of product on the world market - technology. Technology is scientific methods for achieving practical goals. The concept of technology usually includes three groups of technologies: product technology, process technology and control technology.
International technology transfer is the interstate movement of scientific and technological achievements on a commercial or free basis.
The objects of the global technology market are the results of intellectual activity in materialized (equipment, units, tools, technological lines, etc.) and intangible forms (various types of technical documentation, knowledge, experience, services, etc.).
The subjects of the global technology market are states, universities, firms, non-profit organizations, foundations and individuals - scientists and specialists.
Technology becomes a commodity, that is, a product that can only be sold under certain conditions. Technology is approaching becoming a commodity at a certain stage of the “idea-market” movement, namely when the real possibility of commercializing an idea is realized, an examination has been carried out, screening has been carried out, and possible areas of use have been identified. And even in this case, the product-technology must be marketable, that is, meet the standard requirements for the product. By acquiring a marketable form (patent, production experience, know-how, equipment, etc.), technology becomes a commodity and can be the subject of technology transfer.
Technology transfer occurs in different forms, in different ways and through different channels.
Forms of technology transfer on a non-commercial basis:
– huge information arrays of specialized literature, computer data banks, patents, reference books, etc.;
– conferences, exhibitions, symposiums, seminars, clubs, including permanent ones;
– training, internship, practice of students, scientists and specialists, carried out on a parity basis by universities, firms, organizations, etc.;
– migration of scientists and specialists, including international, the so-called “brain drain” from scientific to commercial structures and vice versa, the establishment of new high-tech venture-type firms by specialists from universities and corporations, the creation of foreign marketing and research divisions by large corporations.
The main flow of technology transfer in non-commercial form comes from non-patentable information - fundamental R&D, business games, scientific discoveries and unpatented inventions.
In addition to the official one, the illegal “transfer” of technology has recently become widespread in the form of industrial espionage and technological “piracy” - the mass production and sale of imitative technologies by shadow structures. Technological piracy is most developed in the NIS of Southeast Asia.
The main forms of commercial transfer of information are:
– sale of technology in materialized form – machines, units, automatic and electronic equipment, technological lines, etc.;
– foreign investments and the accompanying construction, reconstruction, modernization of enterprises, firms, production, if they are accompanied by an influx of investment goods, as well as leasing;
– sale of patents (patent agreements are an international trade transaction under which the owner of the patent assigns his rights to use the invention to the buyer of the patent. Typically, small, highly specialized firms that are not able to put the invention into production sell patents to large corporations);
– sale of licenses for all types of patented industrial property, except for trademarks (licensing agreements - an international trade transaction under which the owner of an invention or technical knowledge grants the other party permission to use, within certain limits, its rights to the technology);
– sale of licenses for unpatented types of industrial property - “know-how”, production secrets, technological experience, accompanying documents for equipment, instructions, diagrams, as well as training of specialists, advisory support, examination, etc. (“know-how” - provision technical experience and production secrets, including information of a technological, economic, administrative, financial nature, the use of which provides certain advantages. The subject of sale in this case is usually unpatented inventions of commercial value);
– joint R&D, scientific and production cooperation;
–engineering – provision of technological knowledge necessary for the acquisition, installation and use of purchased or leased machinery and equipment. They include a wide range of activities for the preparation of feasibility studies of projects, consultations, supervision, design, testing, warranty and post-warranty service.
Almost all technology transfer in commercial form is formalized or accompanied by a licensing agreement.
Lecture No. 7. Topic: International trade: structure, dynamics, pricing.
1. The concept of international trade.
2. Subjects of international trade.
3. Structure of international trade.
4. World prices and pricing.
International trade is one of the forms of international economic relations, which was historically the first, and is most developed today.
International trade is the sphere of commodity-money relations, which represents the totality of foreign trade of all countries of the world. In other words, international trade is the sphere of exchange of labor products (goods and services) between sellers and buyers of different countries.
Foreign trade is the exchange of goods and services between state-registered national economies. The term "foreign trade" is applicable only to a single country.
International trade connects national economies into a single system of the world market. The latter has fundamental differences from domestic national markets:
1) only competitive goods enter the world market;
2) world prices operate, based on international value;
3) it is more susceptible to monopolization (dominance of TNCs);
4) the decisive influence can be exerted not by economic, but by political factors (for example, politics in the state, embargo, etc.);
5) settlements are carried out in freely convertible currency and in international units of account.
In the process of international trade, two directions of trade flows arise - export and import.
Export – export of goods manufactured (produced and processed) in a given country.
Re-export – export of goods previously imported from abroad, including goods sold at international auctions, commodity exchanges, etc.
Import – the import from abroad of goods, technologies for sale in the importer’s domestic market, as well as the paid receipt of production and consumer services from a foreign importer.
Re-import is the return import from abroad of previously exported national goods.
Accounting for export supplies is carried out in FOB prices; accounting for import supplies - in CIF prices. Indicators for assessing export-import supplies are important for determining the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of foreign and international trade, such as:
Cost and physical volume (trade turnover). The value of foreign trade is calculated for a certain period of time in current prices of the corresponding years using current exchange rates. There are nominal and real value volumes of international trade. The nominal value of international trade is usually expressed in current US dollars and is therefore highly dependent on the movement of the dollar's exchange rate with other currencies. The real volume of international trade is the nominal volume converted to constant prices using a deflator. The physical volume of foreign trade is calculated in constant prices and makes it possible to make the necessary comparisons and determine its real dynamics. The figures shown are calculated by all countries in national currencies and converted to US dollars for international comparison purposes;
Commodity structure, which represents the ratio of product groups in world exports. Today in the world there are over 20 million types of manufactured products for industrial and consumer purposes, and the number of intermediate products reaches fantastic proportions. In addition, the World Trade Organization estimates that there are more than 600 types of services;
Geographic structure represents the distribution of trade flows between individual countries and their groups, distinguished either by territorial or organizational characteristics. Territorial geographical structure - data on international trade of countries belonging to one part of the world or to one group. Organizational geographical structure - data on international trade between countries belonging to individual integration and other trade and political groupings, or allocated to a certain group according to one or another.
International trade - is the exchange of goods and services between sellers and buyers of different countries, mediated by currency exchange. From the point of view of an individual national economy, international trade takes the form foreign trade - a set of exchange transactions of goods and services of a single country with other countries of the world.
International trade consists of two basic counter flows: export export and sale of goods (provision of services) abroad and import - purchasing and importing goods (receiving services) from abroad. Special types of import and export are re-export and re-import. Re-export - this is the export of goods previously imported from abroad that were not processed in a given country, as well as goods sold at international auctions, commodity exchanges, etc. Re-import - this is the import from abroad of goods previously exported from the country without any processing in the foreign country.
Objects international trade is goods (final products for industrial and non-industrial purposes, semi-finished products, raw materials, fuel, etc.) and services (business, financial, computer, information, transport, tourism, etc.).
Subjects international trade are:
Direct buyers and sellers of goods and services, which are represented by states, legal entities and individuals;
Resellers are firms and institutions that help speed up the sale of goods;
International and intergovernmental organizations that form the institutional environment and provide economic and legal regulation of trade.
International Trade Methods
In international practice, two main implementation methods export-import operations - trade without intermediaries And trade through intermediaries. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Direct conclusion of a transaction between the seller and the buyer allows you to save on paying for the services of an intermediary and reduces the risk of losses from possible dishonesty or incompetence. Direct contacts can contribute to better orientation of sellers to the changing requirements of buyers and the introduction of necessary changes in the characteristics of the product, etc. At the same time, firms resorting to direct trade are forced to incur costs for studying and analyzing sales markets, for creating sales centers in other countries networks, for the maintenance of lawyers for the preparation of agreements, transportation and implementation of customs formalities, etc. If the costs of direct trade exceed the benefits from it, it is advisable to resort to the services of intermediaries.
Trade intermediaries can be both legal entities and individuals who, on a commercial basis, carry out the search for foreign partners, preparation of documentation for signing contracts, credit and financial services, transportation, storage, insurance of goods, after-sales service, etc. The participation of intermediaries, first of all, frees manufacturers from the sale of goods, increases the efficiency of sales and, by reducing distribution costs, increases the profitability of foreign economic transactions. Typically, specialized intermediaries respond more quickly to changes in market conditions, which also increases the efficiency of trade.
In the practice of international trade, the following types of intermediary operations are distinguished:
- dealerships, in which an intermediary trading company buys the goods from the manufacturer who resells them, acting on its own behalf and at its own expense, and bears all the risks of loss or destruction of the goods; goods are sold under dealer agreements distributors;
- commissions, in which the reseller sells and buys goods on his own behalf, but at the expense and on behalf of the guarantor, in an agreement with which the technical and commercial conditions of sale and purchase are stipulated and the amount of the commission is determined;
- agency, in which the intermediary acts on behalf of the principal and at his expense; representative agents carry out marketing research, advertising and PR campaigns, organize business contacts with importers, government and other organizations on which the placement of orders depends; agent-attorneys have the right, on the basis of a mandate agreement, to enter into transactions on behalf of the principal;
- brokerage, for which trading companies or individuals bring together sellers and buyers, coordinate their proposals, conclude transactions at the expense of the principal, acting on his behalf and on their own.
A special place among international trade intermediaries is occupied by institutional intermediaries - commodity exchanges, auctions and trades (tenders).
International commodity exchanges They are permanent wholesale markets where the purchase and sale of homogeneous goods with clear and stable quality characteristics corresponding to a unified standardization system is carried out. According to their organizational and legal form, most exchanges are closed joint stock companies. Depending on the product range, exchanges are divided into universal And specialized. The largest in terms of transaction volumes are universal exchanges, where the purchase and sale of a wide range of various goods takes place. For example, on the Chicago Board of Trade exchange (more than 40% of the volume of US agreements) wheat, corn, oats, soybeans, soybean oil, gold, and securities are traded. On specialized exchanges, goods of a narrow range are sold and bought, for example, on the London Stock Exchange metals trade in non-ferrous metals - copper, aluminum, nickel, etc.
The sale of exchange-traded goods is mainly carried out without their delivery to the exchange, using samples or standard descriptions. In fact, on a commodity exchange it is not goods as such that are sold, but contracts for their supply. Transactions with real goods constitute a small share of the total volume of exchange transactions (12%). Depending on the delivery time they are divided into transactions with immediate delivery (“spot”), when the goods are transferred from the exchange warehouse to the buyer within 15 days after the conclusion of the contract, and transactions involving the delivery of goods at a specific date in the future at the price fixed at the time of conclusion of the contract (forward transactions). The vast majority of exchange transactions are futures transactions. Unlike transactions on real goods, futures contracts provide for the purchase and sale of rights to goods at the price that is set at the time of the transaction between the seller and the buyer (or their brokers) on the exchange.
Exchange futures perform an important function of insuring the risk of losses from changes in prices of real goods - hedging. The hedging mechanism is based on the fact that changes in market prices for real goods and futures are the same in size and direction. Consequently, if one of the parties to the transaction loses as a seller of a real commodity, then he wins as a buyer of a futures contract for the same amount of commodity, and vice versa. Let's assume that a copper wire manufacturing company has signed a contract to supply a certain quantity in 6 months. She needs 3 months to complete the order. It is unprofitable to purchase copper 6 months before the order is completed: it will be stored in a warehouse for 3 months, which will require storage costs and the payment of additional interest on the loan for its purchase. At the same time, postponing its purchase is also risky, since the market price of copper may rise. Taking this into account, the company buys futures for the required amount of copper. Let the futures quote be 95.2 thousand dollars with the price of a real commodity being 95.0 thousand dollars. After 3 months, copper has risen in price, which also caused an increase in the futures price: the same amount of copper now costs 96.0 thousand dollars, and futures - 96.2 thousand dollars. By buying copper as a real commodity for 96.0 thousand dollars, the company loses 10 thousand dollars. But it sells the futures at 96.2 thousand dollars and thereby wins 10 thousand. dollars. Thus, the company has insured itself against losses due to price increases and will be able to receive the planned profit.
International auctions represent a form of public purchase and sale of goods based on price competition among buyers. The subject of auctions are goods that have distinct individual properties - furs, tea, tobacco, spices, flowers, racehorses, antiques, etc. Preparation for auction sales involves the formation of lots - batches of goods of uniform quality, each of which is assigned a number. Under this number, the lot indicating the characteristics of the product is entered into the auction catalog. The general rule of all auctions is the lack of responsibility of the seller for the quality of the goods (the buyer himself sees the goods and knows what he is buying). Auctions are held on a predetermined day and time in a specially equipped room. The auctioneer announces the lot number, its starting price, and buyers make their offers regarding the price. The lot is sold to the highest bidder. The vast majority of auction sales are carried out precisely according to this scheme, which is called the “English auction”. In some countries, a price reduction method is used, which is called the “Dutch auction”: the auctioneer announces the highest price of the lot and, if there are no people willing to purchase the goods at this price, begins to gradually reduce her until the item is sold. The most famous are tea auctions in Kolkata (India), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Jakarta (Indonesia), antique auctions - Sotheby's and Christie's in London, fur auctions in Copenhagen (Norway) and St. Petersburg (Russia) .
International trading (tenders) It is also a competitive form of purchase and sale of goods, in which buyers announce a competition for sellers to supply goods with certain technical and economic characteristics. International tenders are the most common way of placing orders for the construction of production and non-production facilities, supply of machinery and equipment, carrying out research and design work, they are also used to select a foreign partner when creating a joint venture. All interested companies can take part in open tenders; in closed tenders, only those that have received an invitation to participate, usually these are well-known suppliers or contractors on the world market. Buyers create a tender committee, which includes representatives of the buying organization, as well as technical and commercial experts. After comparing the received proposals, the winner of the auction is determined, who offered the goods on more favorable terms for the buyer and on which the buyer signs the contract.
The most expressive modern trends in the development of international tender trade are an increase in the number of participants, an increase in the number of tenders for the construction of complex facilities, for new types of machinery, equipment, new technologies, engineering consulting services, a significant reorientation of priorities from price factors to non-price factors (the possibility of obtaining loans for preferential conditions, the possibility of further placing orders and long-term cooperation, political factors, etc.).
Belarusian State University
Faculty of Humanities
Abstract
on the topic: International trade: types and mechanisms
Introduction
1. The essence and most important characteristics of international and foreign trade
2. Types of world trade and its mechanisms
3. International trade in services
4. International trade in goods
Conclusion
References
Introduction
International trade is one of the most developed and traditional forms of international economic relations. It originated in ancient times - international trade itself began to take place with the formation of the first national states in the 4th - 3rd millennia BC.
However, at that time, only a small part of the production entered into international exchange, since the dominant form of economy was subsistence farming.
Since the 80s. XX century The development of international trade is closely related to the globalization of the economy, when the markets of individual countries essentially “merge.” This occurs most intensively within the framework of integration groups, customs, trade and economic unions, where administrative and economic barriers between countries are reduced or even eliminated.
Electronic commerce (e-commerce, electronic commerce) occupies an increasingly significant place in modern international trade. Electronic commerce is based on the use of the capabilities of modern computer systems to carry out transactions for the sale of goods and services and the transfer of financial resources.
A significant impact on the development of international trade is exerted by the activities of TNCs, which form their own internal (“internal”) markets, determine within their framework market conditions, the scale and direction of commodity flows, prices for goods (transfer prices occupy a special place here) and the overall development strategy such markets. Since modern international trade involves many different subjects of international economic relations (from TNCs with global strategies and global scale of trade to individual individuals (“shuttles”)), whose economic interests often do not coincide, then, in general, intense competition is characteristic.
International commodity flows in general are becoming enormous and cover all regions of the world. In 2003, international trade in goods (together with international trade in services) continues to occupy a central place in the general system of international economic relations at the beginning of the 21st century. Indeed, the population of all countries of the modern world, without exception, is connected in one way or another with international trade. In the sphere of international trade, the economic interests of its participants are realized - individual states, their groupings and unions, corporate businesses of various levels - from small enterprises to super-large TNCs participating in international trade of individuals (individuals). At the same time, when carrying out foreign trade operations, these subjects of international economic relations are included in complex and highly contradictory processes of international competition.
The effectiveness or ineffectiveness of foreign trade, the openness or, conversely, the closedness of national economic systems have a very contradictory impact on economic entities and on the population of different countries of the world. For example, the liberalization of foreign economic relations and the growing openness of the national economy lead to the fact that cheap competitive imported goods enter the country in significant quantities, but this can lead to the closure of domestic enterprises producing similar products, an increase in unemployment in the country, etc.
International trade in goods consists of two oppositely directed flows - export and import of goods.
Export is the export of goods abroad for their sale on the foreign market. Import - import of goods for sale on the domestic market. Re-export is the export of previously imported goods that have not been processed in a given country. Re-import is the return import of unprocessed domestic goods from abroad into the country. The fact of export and import is recorded at the moment of crossing the customs border and is reflected in the customs and foreign trade statistics of the state.
When assessing the scale of international trade, a distinction is made between the concepts of nominal and real volume of international trade. The first of these (nominal volume) is the value of international trade expressed in US dollars at current prices. Therefore, the nominal volume of international trade depends on the state and dynamics of the exchange rate of the dollar to national currencies. The real volume of international trade is its nominal volume converted into constant prices using the selected deflator.
The nominal volume of international trade, despite some deviations in some years, generally has a general upward trend.
In addition to export and import indicators, foreign trade statistics use the foreign trade balance indicator, which is the cost difference between exports and imports. The balance can be positive (active) or negative (passive), depending on whether exports exceed imports or, conversely, imports exceed exports (accordingly, there are concepts of active and passive foreign trade balance). The countries of the world are interested in having a positive foreign trade balance and growing in scale, since this indicates an active foreign trade policy, foreign exchange earnings into the country are growing, and thereby creating the preconditions for economic growth within the country.
1. The essence and most important characteristics of international and foreign trade
When defining international trade, it should be remembered that it, like other elements of the system of international economic relations, is a very complex and multifaceted phenomenon, therefore there are many definitions of it. Here is one of the most generally accepted: international trade is the totality of foreign trade of all countries in the world. Foreign trade is the trade of a given country with other countries, consisting of the export (export) and import (import) of goods, works, and services. Foreign and international trade are similar concepts. The same commodity transaction between two states can be considered from both external and international trade. Both of them are associated with the sphere of international circulation, with acts of purchase and sale. The development of these categories is determined by the processes of the production sphere. However, these concepts are far from unambiguous. Foreign and international trade relate to each other as private and general, as national and international. When they talk about foreign trade, they mean a specific sector of the economy of a particular state associated with the sale of part of national products (goods and services) on foreign markets and part of foreign goods and services on the first national market. Foreign trade is regulated primarily by national government agencies and is associated with such categories as the trade balance and national economic policy.
International trade is a specific area that unites foreign trade sectors of national economies. However, this is not a purely mechanical, but an organic unity, which has its own patterns of development and special regulatory bodies. International trade is associated with the international division of labor and the international market.
Foreign trade is the most important sphere of activity of any state. Without foreign trade and foreign markets, no state can exist and develop. At the present stage, when individual countries have become links in the international economy, their economies are more dependent than ever on the external market. In connection with the deepening of international specialization and cooperation, the growth of internationalization of economic life, under the influence of the scientific and technological revolution (STR), foreign trade is becoming an increasingly important factor in economic development, a factor in the interaction and cooperation of states.
International trade is one of the forms of international economic relations (IER), YAG
As is known, the most important forms of IEO are:
International trade;
International monetary and financial relations;
International scientific, technical and industrial cooperation;
International labor migration;
International capital migration and international investment;
International economic integration.
All these forms are closely related and interact with each other, but, of course, the main, main and leading form is international trade. It mediates other forms, a significant part of which is realized through it. In particular, the development of international specialization and cooperation in production, international scientific and technical cooperation is reflected in the expansion of the exchange of goods and services between countries. The relationship and interdependence of international trade and international investment activity are very close. Foreign investments, primarily direct ones, carried out by manufacturing companies, as a rule, stimulate the development of export production in capital-recipient countries and thus contribute to the expansion and increase in global trade volumes.
Regional integration groupings and associations (for example, the EU, NAFTA, CIS, APEC) influence the commodity and geographical structure of international trade and contribute to its development mainly within the framework of these associations. At the same time, they often impede the development of transcontinental trade flows and sometimes hinder the processes of globalization of the world economy.
In general, the impact of international trade on the world economy and international economic relations is as follows:
The growth of foreign trade exchange between countries leads to the fact that the interconnection and interdependence of the economic complexes of individual countries is increasing so much that disruptions in the functioning of the economy of any state can entail negative consequences for the development of national economies in other countries of the world;
Through international trade, the results of all forms of world economic relations are realized - the export of capital, international scientific, technical and industrial cooperation;
♦ deepening interregional, intraregional and interstate trade relations is a prerequisite and incentive for international economic integration;
♦ international trade contributes to the further deepening of the international division of labor and the globalization of the world economy.
Thus, at the present stage, international trade plays an important role in the development of both the world economy and international economic relations as a whole, and individual entities of the world economy, being, on the one hand, a powerful factor in economic growth, and on the other, a factor in increasing the interdependence of countries.
2. Types of world trade and its mechanisms
· trade in goods:
Food and non-food raw materials;
Mineral raw materials;
Finished products;
trade in services:
Engineering services;
Leasing services;
Information and consulting services;
· trade in licenses and know-how;
Countertrade:
Transactions based on natural exchange:
* barter transactions;
* operations with customer-supplied raw materials - tolling;
Commercial transactions:
* counter purchases;
* buyback/purchase of outdated products;
* commercial compensation transactions and
* advance purchases;
Trade within the framework of industrial cooperation or cooperative products
* compensation transactions;
* counter deliveries.
International trade is carried out through the conclusion of international transactions and agreements.
Trading can be carried out on exchanges, auctions and trades.
Exchanges: real transactions, speculative or urgent and with cash goods.
Auctions: upward and downward.
Bargaining: open, open with qualification and closed (tenders).
To characterize the state and development of MT, the following indicators are used:
Cost and physical volume of trade turnover;
General commodity and geographical structure of world trade turnover;
Level of specialization and industrialization of exports;
Elasticity coefficients of MT, exports, imports and terms of trade;
Export and import quotas;
Trade balance.
The development of MT is accompanied by an increase in global wealth. Since the end of the Second World War, international exchange has been one of the main drivers of economic growth. Since the beginning of the 90s, the growth dynamics of MT have doubled the growth in global production volumes. The movement of goods and services between individual countries links national markets in the single market system and, accordingly, strengthens the economic interdependence of countries. This indicates the progressive integration of economies on a global scale and determines the objective prerequisites for strengthening the role of MT in the global economy and international economic relations.
3. International trade in services
Services are a complex of diverse activities and commercial activities related to satisfying a wide range of people's needs. The reference book “Liberalization of International Transactions in Services” developed by UNTCAD and the World Bank provides the following definition of services: services are a change in the position of an institutional unit that occurs as a result of actions and on the basis of a mutual agreement with another institutional unit.
It is easy to see that this is an extremely broad definition, covering a diverse range of operations. Therefore, we can distinguish between the concept of services in the broad and narrow sense of the word. In a broad sense, services are a set of various activities and commercial activities of a person through which he communicates with other people. In a narrow sense, servants mean specific actions and events that one party (partner) can offer to the other party.
Although services are traditionally considered as the so-called “tertiary sector” of the economy, they currently account for 2/3 of global GDP. They absolutely predominate in the economy of the United States (75% of GDP) and other industrialized countries (within 2/3 - 3/4 of GDP), as well as in most developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The share of services in the Russian Federation's GDP in 2002 was 52%.
Services have a number of significant differences from goods in their material terms:
1) they are usually intangible. This intangibility and “invisibility” of most types of services is often the basis for calling foreign trade in them invisible exports and imports;
2) services are inseparable from their source;
3) their production and consumption are, as a rule, inseparable;
4) they are characterized by inconsistency of quality, variability and unstorability.
The number of services and their role in the economy and international trade is growing rapidly, primarily as a result of scientific and technical progress, the growth of international economic relations in general, and increasing incomes and solvency of the population in many countries of the world. Since services are heterogeneous, there are several classifications.
The classification of services, based on the International Standardized Industrial Classification adopted by the United Nations, includes:
1) utilities and construction;
2) wholesale and retail trade, restaurants and hotels;
3) transportation, storage and communications, as well as financial intermediation;
4) defense and mandatory social services;
5) education, health and public works;
6) other communal, social and personal services. Most services under this classification are produced and consumed domestically and cannot be traded internationally.
The IMF classification used in compiling the balance of payments includes the following types of services related to payments between residents and non-residents: 1) transport; 2) trips; 3) communication; 4) construction; 5) insurance; b) financial services; 7) computer and information services; 8) royalties and license payments; 9) other business services; 10) personal, cultural and recreational services; 11) government services.
International trade in information products. Products of intellectual and creative labor form their own special market - the market of intangible goods - ideas, artistic insights, scientific discoveries, knowledge, inventions, new technologies, production experience, etc. All these diverse products are usually embodied in specific material products - patents, plays , melodies, models, drawings, calculations, etc., which distinguishes this market from a very similar service market, where there is no material embodiment of the product.
Unlike natural resources, information goods as intangible products of labor do not have physical wear and tear, are inexhaustible and capable of self-reproduction, such as knowledge, which is capable of being reproduced and increased in the process of their productive consumption by creative people. The main property of intellectual resources, which ensures their active use in production, is the ability to be replicated, i.e. they can be used on any scale.
The information services market is developing most dynamically. The increase in demand for information is caused by the general complication of the management structure of companies and the need for them to make reasoned decisions based on forecast information. The information market includes all types of information, including business, legal, environmental, medical, and consumer.
The market covers a group of goods having legitimate protection exclusive rights of the owner, confirmed by official documents (patents, certificates of registration of copyright, industrial property). This applies primarily to such labor products as inventions. The exclusive rights of the author (inventor) are confirmed and secured by a state patent, based only on the registered priority in the filing deadlines. This also includes new engineering solutions and industrial developments, samples, models, designs, confirmed by copyright registration certificates. Alienation of rights is fully or partially formalized by a license - a document confirming the assignment of rights and fixing the scope of transferred rights and the conditions for their use.
The second group is formed legally "unprotected" products of activity that are distinguished by originality, but do not have formal grounds for recognition of their exclusivity. Accumulated production experience, interesting design and technological solutions, which, however, do not have sufficient signs of invention, are unique goods, the information insecurity of which is fraught with gratuitous copying of the idea. Any violation of confidentiality violates the exclusivity of the product and reduces its price.
International currency market. The foreign exchange market is a collection of funds that operate separately from national money markets. Currency is bought by exporters and importers, banks and financial companies, hedgers and speculators.
The specificity of currency as a commodity is that its consumer value is determined not by the physical qualities of money as an object of transaction, but by the ability to provide the owner with income and the receipt of certain benefits. Money is a title, a debt obligation of the state (the issuer of money) to provide its owner with a set of benefits. Changes in the price of currency as a title of government obligation are associated with differences in global market participants' assessments of the expected real value of these nominal obligations.
The dynamics of market prices for a commodity such as currency are determined not by objective shifts in the level of their costs (as the basis of value), but by fluctuations in the subjective assessments of the expectations of market participants themselves. And the source of income for currency owners is another market participant. In speculative trade, there is mainly a multiple redistribution of existing, rather than newly created, value, as provided for in the classical model of international commodity exchange for markets of physical goods.
The object of trade transactions are funds in accounts and national bank deposits that are acquired by foreigners and placed outside the country issuing the national currency. Since the lending instrument is, as a rule, deposits in Eurocurrencies, they, as a financial instrument, have recently become one of the most important objects of foreign exchange trading.
International securities trading. The global securities market is a rather fragmented system of interaction between sellers and buyers in relation to documents establishing property rights that are different in form and content. The transfer of these rights is complicated by the peculiarities of national laws regulating the rights to property, real estate, money, the possibility of exporting currency values and capital abroad, the acquisition of rights to real estate by foreigners, etc. In addition, the variety of forms of such papers and the ambiguity of terminology have an impact. Even with regard to money (currencies), goods that are sufficiently standardized and secured by the authority of the state, procedural and technical difficulties arise in international trade. With regard to financial assets (i.e., securities that are the subject of trading), the situation becomes much more complicated.
The global market limits trading operations only to certain types of securities, the format of which has been unified. This market includes:
Debt obligations (including bills, bonds, receipts payable, warrants);
Titles of property (including shares, shares, warehouse receipts, delivery notes, depository receipts, bills of lading, certificates of deposit);
Rights of claim (documents on assignment, forfeiting, assets of accounts receivable, writs of execution of arbitration courts, prepaid products, checks, rights to credit);
Financial derivatives (options and swaps);
Bank financial guarantees as a tradable asset.
The most developed markets bonds and shares. The bond market sells the issuer's debt obligations to pay the face value of the bond sold on time and pay, in addition, interest for the use of borrowed money during this period. A bond is essentially an IOU to receive money, attracting the lender, usually with a higher percentage of return, which is intended to compensate for the risk. The market value of bonds is calculated quite simply - based on the equivalent amount of capital, which ensures, at the deposit rate in effect at the time of purchase (or sale) of the bond, the receipt of the same income that the sold (or purchased) bond provides.
In the stock market, we are talking about the title of ownership of property, which should grow due to the business activities of the issuer. The shareholder's income - the amount of dividends - depends on the success of the business.
4. International trade in goods
The variety of world trade goods is growing rapidly, which is greatly facilitated by scientific and technological progress and competition. Each product, each trade transaction is unique in its own way and requires the use of forms and methods that are adequate to the nature of the product when conducting any transaction.
It is advisable to consider five more or less homogeneous groups of goods for which differences in the mechanism of international trade are most noticeable and which form world markets that are quite different in their characteristics: the market for traditional physical goods, the market for services, products of intellectual and creative labor, as well as currency and financial assets.
Market of physical goods. Material products constitute the traditional nomenclature of international trade turnover and international statistics of world trade.
Until the end of the twentieth century, the structure of world economic commodity flows generally corresponded to the sectoral structure of the gross product. Its changes reflected, as already noted, the general trends in the economic development of countries and the introduction of scientific and technical innovations into social production.
The main item in the global turnover of material products is finished products, the share of which even in exports from developing countries (mainly due to Asian exporters) increased from 19% in 1980 to 70% by 2005. In exports of material products from developed countries the share of such finished industrial products increased to 80%.
The increase in finished products in global trade turnover is carried out through machinery, equipment, and vehicles. Trade in semi-finished products, intermediate products, and individual final consumer goods is expanding, the share of which accounts for almost a third of world imports, and in trade in machinery, equipment and vehicles - about 40%.
Commodities constitute a significant part of the product range. They cover large groups of agricultural products, where grains and food occupy an important place. In analytical assessments of the economic situation of countries, the volumes of imports of these particular goods usually characterize the foreign economic dependence and vulnerability of countries from external supplies.
Over the twenty-fifth anniversary (since 1980), the share of food in the exports of developed countries, which were considered the main suppliers of these products to the world market, decreased by "/3 and amounted to 7.6%; developing countries - by 30% and amounted to 8.4% of countries Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) - by 14% and accounted for 9.1% in the exports of these countries. The share of agricultural raw materials, metals and ores, and fuels in global exports decreased significantly.
The modern economy is becoming less and less dependent on the vicissitudes of the natural uneven distribution of natural resources, and their role in world trade is naturally declining. The exception, perhaps, is mineral fuels, the share of which in world trade is not only not declining, but growing. The elasticity coefficient of fuel consumption in relation to industrial output is close to 1 (unity), which means that the demand for fuel will grow in proportion to the growth of industrial production.
The main changes in commodity trade in the globalization of world trade have affected the forms of trade transactions. The commodity market, historically one of the earliest markets in world trade, is monopolized for most goods due to the direct dependence of prices on available reserves and mining conditions, climatic conditions for growing agricultural products, which, in turn, are caused by the natural uneven distribution of favorable natural conditions and minerals.
As the consumption of raw materials decreased, trade relations based on long-term contracts between producers and consumers of raw materials began to lose their stability. Competition between suppliers of raw materials and the fickleness of buyers led to the inclusion of intermediaries in trade operations and the transition to trading through auctions and commodity exchanges. Conducting trade transactions with the participation of international auctions and exchanges reduces risks, since these reputable participants act as guarantors of the reliability of trading operations in a relatively unstable and declining commodity market.
Industrial goods market. According to international statistics, the share of finished industrial products and semi-finished products in global exports of material products increased from 55% in 1960 to 75% by 2005. The most dynamically developing group of goods in the 90s in the exports of developed countries, and accordingly in global exports, steel office and telecommunications equipment, automation equipment.
Among the leading exporters of industrial products are 15 countries from the group of developing countries, including 11 Asian ones. This (according to UN statistics) includes Bangladesh, India, China, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philippines, as well as Brazil, Israel, and Mexico. Naturally, this also includes the newly industrialized countries of Southeast Asia - Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea.
In the production of industrial products, in contrast to raw materials, the importance of natural resources is noticeably reduced, giving way to the leading role of production factors such as equipment and technology. And these are factors that, in principle, can be located in almost any country and that are capable of ensuring production regardless of the availability of natural resources. The country's competitive advantage is based not on the uneven distribution of scarce natural goods, but on the country's ability to concentrate and intelligently organize production resources that are, in principle, unlimited.
The market for industrial products, unlike the market for raw materials, is much more fragmented. The diversity and uniqueness of industrial products exclude the possibility of using exchanges or auctions even for the simplest products. It's not just a matter of manufacturing quality, but primarily the incomparability of many technical parameters. The use of a foreign product requires technological and organizational adaptation of many parts of the production system. The conditions of consumption of an industrial product significantly change the assessment of the market value of this product.
References
1. Kokushkina I.V., Voronin M.S. International trade and world markets: Textbook. – St. Petersburg: Technical book, 2007. – 592 p.
2. International economic relations: Textbook / Ed. B.M. Smitienko. – M.: INFRA-M, 2005. – 512 p.
3. International economic relations. Ed. Rybalkina V.E. - M., 2001
Trade, in a general understanding, is a human activity associated with the exchange of goods and services between producers and consumers.
Foreign trade is the process of exchange of goods and services between national economies (producing countries and consuming countries).
Subjects of foreign trade, i.e. those who carry out the international exchange of goods and services are private and public enterprises and organizations that sell and buy goods and services outside the national market.
International trade is the totality of foreign trade of all countries of the world.
Thus, international trade is a set of operations for the exchange of goods and services between foreign trade entities of all countries of the world.
International trade differs from domestic trade in that:
1) resources at the international level are less mobile than within the country;
2) each country has its own currency;
3) international trade is more subject to political control.
The international exchange of goods and services is carried out within two counter directions of movement of these goods and services:
Their sale by manufacturers (export);
Their purchase by consumers (import).
The market is a meeting place between buyer and seller, a system of interaction between supply and demand.
The development of material production and the establishment of a commodity economy based on the division of labor created objective conditions for the emergence of national domestic markets - a set of purchase and sale transactions during which domestic producers sell goods and services within their country.
Countries around the world are provided with economic resources to varying degrees. This, first of all, determines the emergence and development of international trade. Throughout history, international trade has constantly developed and expanded. Stable trade relations between different states began to form. The established domestic markets gradually went beyond national borders and began to form international markets, which represented those parts of national markets that were directly connected with foreign markets. Thus, international trade began to be systematized, and a world market began to form.
The world market is a sphere of stable commodity-money relations between countries, based on the international division of labor. It represents a set of national markets of all countries, economic relations between which are determined by international trade.
In the process of development of the world market, a system of world prices was formed.
World price is the monetary expression of the global value of a product sold on the world market. The world price serves to determine the prices at which most trade transactions in the world are concluded.
World prices are formed under the influence of the relationship between world demand and world supply for a particular product. The formation of world prices is influenced by the world's leading manufacturers and suppliers (sellers), who have a significant share in the total global volume of these products and constantly maintain their leading position in these commodity markets.
The world market is a combination of world demand and world supply, which materialize in two counter flows of goods and (or) services - export and import.
The economic efficiency of exports is determined by the fact that foreign trade entities sell on the world market those products whose production costs are lower than the global ones. The size of the winnings depends on the ratio of national and world prices of a given product.
When importing goods, a country acquires goods the production of which is currently not economically profitable. The economic efficiency of imports refers to the economic gain that a country receives due to the rapid satisfaction of its needs for certain goods through imports and the release of resources spent on the production of similar goods within the country.
In the pre-industrial era and in the early stages of industrialization of the leading countries of the world, international trade was dominated by agricultural products, mining products and textiles (2/3 of world trade in material goods). Raw materials and food were exported from agricultural countries, finished products, mainly for consumer purposes, from industrial countries.
Later, with the transition of advanced countries to machine production, finished products began to play a leading role in world trade (75% of world trade in material goods). Competition confronted manufacturers with the need to constantly update production technology, reduce production costs, and improve the consumer properties of products.
Later, the role of machinery and equipment in world trade increased. Overall, trade in machinery and equipment accounts for 1/3 of all modern world trade in physical goods.
The structure of trade is very diverse in different countries. Poorer developing countries tend to export food and raw materials and import manufactured goods.
Industrialized countries import raw materials and export processed products.
The export and import of services (invisible exports) play an important role in international trade:
1) all types of international and transit transport;
2) foreign tourism;
3) telecommunications;
4) banking and insurance;
5) computer software;
6) health care and education services, etc.
Over the past two decades, global exchange of services has increased three times faster than the exchange of goods. According to experts, the service sector currently accounts for 20% of all modern world trade.
Competition in the world market is a struggle between subjects of foreign trade of states for the best conditions on the world market, i.e. for increasing the volume of exported goods and services at competitive prices (maximum exceeding costs)
The natural properties of many goods (beef, oranges, mineral fuels) are more or less similar. The main factor in their competitiveness is the price, which is based on the costs of production, storage and transportation. These costs are determined by the cost of labor and the level of labor productivity, which largely depends on the technical equipment of production. The main form of struggle for markets for such goods is price competition.
The basis of competition in the market of finished products is the consumer properties of the product, quality (a set of properties that satisfy the needs or expectations of individual needs). The ratio of quality and price of purchased finished products usually depends on the volume of means of payment of the importer (on the average level of income in the country). Consumer goods of the best quality are imported mainly into countries with the highest per capita incomes, products of average quality are imported into countries with moderate incomes, etc.
