通过阅读学词汇CET-6（34）
Unit thirty-four
Future Trend in World Trade
In spite of the difficulties of predicting future trends in world trade, we can specify factors that will be important. Some of these are: population growth; possible scarcity of commodities; the food and energy situation; pressures to preserve the environment; and international cooperation on political, social, economic, and monetary problems.
In future trade the key development to watch is the relationship between the industrialized and the developing nations. Third World countries export their mineral deposits and tropical agricultural products, which bring them desired foreign exchange. Tourism has also been greatly responsible for the rapid development of some developing nations. Many Third World nations with high unemployment and low wages have seen an emigration of workers to the developed nations. Western Europe has received millions of such workers from Mediterranean countries. The developing nations profit when these workers bring their savings and their acquired technical skills back home. Many developing nations benefit when Western nations establish manufacturing in their countries to take advantage of cheap labor.
As economies mature, economic growth rates tend to level off. The rate of population growth is leveling off today in Western nations. This leveling-off eventually leads to static non-growth markets. A point of saturation sets in. the Western World will eventually move to a period of relatively low economic growth, coupled with a high rate of unemployment. A so-called welfare society will emerge. The unemployed in the new welfare society will be taken care of by the employed through generous contributions to the social welfare system.
Political questions remain as to the world’s fu