ABSTRACT
For the industrial countries of the Western world, the twentieth century has been a period of strong economic growth and tremendous increases in individual material welfare. The availability of abundant supplies of raw materials, the ultimate source of all goods produced, has been an important factor behind the economic achievement. The United States and Canada are both major world producers of resource products. Unlike Japan and the countries of Western Europe, which must rely on imports for a large proportion of most raw materials, the United States and Canada are self sufficient in, or at least have significant domestic production of, many resource products. The resource sectors form a major component of the economies of the United States and Canada. Both countries have large resource bases that support substantial resource industries and have potential for expanded output of many, although not all, raw materials.
