2 - The Geography of Commodity Production and Trade

Summary

This chapter comprises four sections. The first section defines primary commodities and classifies them into a variety of distinct groups. The second section attempts to determine the significance of commodities in the international economy, both at the aggregate and individual product level. The third section paints a broad picture of the current geography of traded commodity production and consumption. The import dependence of the major industrial regions on overseas commodity supply is explored and quantified, and the most important commodity-exporting countries are identified in the process. Section four assumes an historical perspective and considers briefly the forces that have led to the increasing dependence of Western Europe, the USA and Japan and, more recently, China and India, on commodity imports over the past 100 years.