ABSTRACT
As it concerns trade, nations are driven by diverse agendas. Each is swayed by its own assumptions concerning the advantage of trading with other nations. How much importing to allow? How actively to promote exports? What laws will protect the domestic economy and (at times) culture from the influence and impact of foreign competition? What are the political implications of allowing goods and services to flow across one's sovereign border? How should a country reciprocate against another nation's trade restrictions? These are a few of the fundamental questions with which nations grapple. The exporter is caught in this discourse not just as a bystander, but as one whose business is encouraged or destroyed by the actions taken. Surprisingly, the theoretical concepts relevant to the economic benefits from trade derive largely from commonly accepted international trade theories developed over the past 200 years. These concepts remain at the heart of contemporary public dialogue in determining policies for controlling or encouraging international commerce.1
