I don't think that Gambia trading with USA can be classified under some neat economic theorems such as comparative and absolute advantage. As far as the USA trading with Third World countries is concerned, most economic theorems completely fly out the window. For one, the global monetary system has always disadvantage poorer African countries. How can we expect our business people to trade with the USA when the Dalasi is sliding faster than an avalanche on Mt Everest. I have always been of the perception that the monetary system must be overhauled to give it some semblance of fairness in this modern age. The Westerners had one up on us when they stole gold from Africa and elsewhere then used the "Gold Standard" as the monetary system. In other words, the more reserves of gold a country had, the stronger its currency was. Regardless of this backdrop, policies have to be introduced to stabilize the Dalasi. At this point, I have not see any such policies emanating from the government yet. But the country, for one, needs to cut down the unnecessary fiscal spending. Furthermore, everyone knows how tough it is for anyone to penetrate the US market. The issue of tariffs and stringent regulations have to be addressed to give The Gambia any chance of doing business here. One also has to consider the fact, that even for those rare good swhich Africans need here, there are other African countries who are far ahead of us when it comes to doing business here. So we also have to compete with these countries. My opinion is that as it concerns trade, we have little or no chance of competing here. Technical assistance will be a better gambit. Macro and micro economic policies have to be installed to stabilize the Dalasi and also improve the economic standing of the country. Our house has to be put in other before we can ever dream of trading with the USA in any serious capacity. We should keep it simple and strengthen our trading status with countries in the sub-region. This way we have a sliver of a chance.. _Yus In a message dated 3/12/2002 6:07:59 AM US Mountain Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes: > >The idea here is simple and intuitive. If our country can produce some set > >of goods at lower cost than a foreign country, and if the foreign country > >can produce some other set of goods at a lower cost than we can produce > >them, then clearly it would be best for us to trade our relatively cheaper > >goods for their relatively cheaper goods ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~