ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION The growing difficulties faced today in explaining present patterns of North-South trade in manufactures are often the result of an incorrect perception of the real determinants of such trade, as well as of the way protectionist tensions are generated and percolate through the international trading system. Economic and trade policy decisions taken, either by developed or developing countries, are becoming, with the increase of interdependence, more interconnected than ever, a fact magnifying the potential cost of ill-conceived trade policies, in terms of their pervasive effects among trading partners. In addition, the evolution of forms in which North-South trade has been taking place in recent years, as a reflection of the evolving nature of comparative advantage, together with other interrelated factors, is increasingly leading to the appearance of various types of dichotomies in the trading system. It is precisely those dichotomies that render the present conceptualization and analysis of such new realities of trade more complex than ever.
