International Trade, 1954

A report on the status and trends of international trade in 1954 was released by the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in July 1955. During the second half of 1954, the report noted, the value of world exports had reached an all time record high while the volume of trade had, since before Korea, increased slightly more (28.5 percent) than the volume of industrial production (26 percent). As compared with 1953, the world price of export goods had decreased slightly, due largely to lower prices for manufactures, since the prices of raw materials had remained essentially unaltered. Foodstuffs were the only category in which prices had increased (by 11 percent from 1953 to 1954) and this increase was entirely accounted for by coffee, cocoa and tea. The ratio between the price of manufactured goods and primary products had, on the whole, remained at the pre-Korea level. Compared with 1950, the prices of raw materials in the second half of 1954 had increased 15 percent whereas the prices of foodstuffs alone had increased 38 percent. These factors had led to a larger increase in food production in industrial as compared to non-industrial countries and to a larger share of exports from industrial areas in the world's total food exports.