Chapter 17 International Trade Start Up: Trade Winds Rapid increases in the flow of goods and services between vastly different nations and cultures have changed what people eat, how they dress, and even how they communicate with one another For you, increased trade has meant greater choice of what to buy and often lower prices Look through your room Chances are it is full of items from all around the world The relatively free trade that exists today provides you with expanded choices No one forced you to buy that shirt from India or that CD player from Japan Presumably you bought them because you preferred them to other shirts and CD players you might have bought, perhaps because they had certain characteristics—style, color, perceived quality, or price—that you favored Your gains are being experienced worldwide because the winds of international trade have blown generally freer in the past decades Nations all over the world have dramatically lowered the barriers they impose on the products of other countries One region that was once closed to virtually all trade but is now open is Eastern Europe and the countries that made up the former Soviet Union A key part of these countries’ attempts to create market capitalist economic systems has been the opening of their borders to international trade Attributed to Libby Rittenberg and Timothy Tregarthen Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books/ Saylor.org 884