Changing trade patterns of the West Pacific

Abstract

In the enormous expansion of world trade in the quarter century after 1950, the share generated by countries of the Western Pacific remained remarkably constant. This relationship primarily reflected the rise of Japan as a major force in the international economy. Whereas Japan's own trade grew more widely oriented and the Western Pacific margins relatively less important as trading partners than before WW II, to the states of the Western Pacific Japan's status both as a supplier of imports and as an export market greatly enlarged —only rarely is Japan not the leading trading partner. The Japanese strategy of ‘export-led’ growth has been replicated by South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. All of these countries, as well as Japan itself, depend overwhelmingly on imports for their raw materials and energy supplies. Elsewhere trade patterns have been greatly modified by a rising spirit of nationalism that has emphasized development of manufacturing industries in Australia and New Zealand no less than in the states of SE Asia.