International Trade and Settlement

Author: Ding Di
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-04-01
Features: With China's impending entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), this has become a hot topic. Joining the WTO will undoubtedly significantly boost China's economic development—why is this the case? This book starts with basic concepts and explains the mutually beneficial role of international trade, demonstrating that all participating countries can gain from it. As early as the early 19th century, the renowned British economist David Ricardo proposed the "Comparative Advantage Theory," a core theory in international trade. Over time, this theory has been continuously refined, and the final section of Chapter 2 of this book provides a summary and supplement to Ricardo's theory. The book also discusses various factors that promote international trade, among which "economies of scale" is a product of international trade and, in turn, further drives its development, as it reduces production costs. Although international trade brings mutual benefits, governments of various countries have established layers of trade barriers to protect their economies from the impact of international market forces, which essentially hinders the development of international trade. One of the tasks of the WTO is to eliminate trade barriers. But is the WTO a perfect organization? This is elaborated on in Chapter 6 of the book. Another important issue in international trade is the payment problem, which is also covered in this book. It explains the three key aspects of the payment problem: payment methods, payment documents, and payment instruments, and theoretically describes the specific operations of payments based on the International Chamber of Commerce's Publication No. 500, providing readers with a clearer understanding.