A WORLD OF PREFERENCES.

TARIFF; EXPORT sales contracts; INTERNATIONAL trade; ECONOMIC policy

This article comments on the decision of the U.S. to offer some form of tariff preferences to imports from developing countries. The case for preferences has been argued on several grounds, some economic and some political. The economic case rests on the developing countries' urgent need for increasing their volume of exports and their earnings from export sales, with particular emphasis on manufactured goods. Preferential tariffs or duty-free entry into the world's major markets for raw materials, semi-manufactured and manufactured products alike would, it is argued, contribute materially to achievement of this objective in several aspects. Hence, those familiar with the reality of commercial policies of industrialized countries and the economic development problems of least developing countries know that there is another side to the story. For one thing, the developing countries are more different than alike in economic potential and in ability to compete in world markets, regardless of tariff levels. Tariff preferences may or may not be of benefit to relatively developed nations. Their situation, however, is most certainly worlds apart from that of the least developed of the least developing countries.