Development Of International Trade Research Articles

Міжнародний досвід фінансування інфраструктурних проєктів

Abstract. Introduction. The article is devoted to issues of international experience in financing infrastructure projects. At the current pace of development, the load on infrastructure in most countries of the world will increase many times over the next decade, and its timely development will become the main guarantee of sustainable growth of the world economy and trade. The design, construction, and expansion of large infrastructure facilities will take years, and decisions regarding their financing mechanisms must be made quickly, which necessitates additional research into this issue. Purpose. On the basis of the conducted research, it was found that the main factors of economic growth will be the increase of humanity (+19% by 2030) to 8.3 billion people, urbanization (the urban population will increase by 40% by 2030; and its share will grow from 52% to 58%), outpacing the growth of population incomes, further development of international trade and tourism. The authors formed the structure of investments in the world for 2020 and found out that the share of state budgets and national funds, according to analysts' estimates, accounts for the main volume of investments in infrastructure - more than 65%. The tendency of the predominance of debt financing in the general structure of liabilities of infrastructure projects has been studied. The results of the OECD study, which was conducted among the largest institutional investors, were analyzed. Results. The research examines modern state proposals for new financing mechanisms, in particular, foreign experience in implementing the prospects of debt and equity financing of international projects, as well as the experience of individual countries - China, India, and Brazil. It has been proven that in the past the investment risks in this area were too high and the profitability was insignificant, which limited the range of investors. Conclusions. Investor interest in infrastructure projects is growing every year, and financing infrastructure projects requires new sources, in particular, an increase in private investment in the industry. It was noted that it is important for Ukraine to take into account and use successful world experience to finance its own infrastructure projects.

STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE OF WORLD LEADERS

The article examines the impact of structural changes in trade flows of leading countries on the state of the global economy, trends in its qualitative changes, and the consequences of this process. The analysis of the works of domestic and foreign scientists on this issue gives understanding of the lack of research on certain elements and factors that affect the dynamics of processes occurring in modern trade against the background of global economic events and shifts, such as Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, Russian aggression against Ukraine, etc. Therefore, to understand the general trends in the development of international trade and the world economy as a whole, special attention should be paid to the study of changes occurring in the foreign trade of key players, the leaders of global trade. An analysis of the aggregated geographic structure of world trade shows a clear separation of three regions where the centers of export and import of goods are concentrated: Asia, Europe, and North America. Three other large regions (Africa, South and Central America, Australia and New Zealand) cannot have a significant impact on the overall situation, as their combined share in world trade is only about 7.5%. The last six years have seen continuing trends of changes in the group of leaders, which are connected with the further redistribution of world markets, continue. But, if North America did not manage to achieve a positive trade balance, even during the tough foreign trade policy of D. Trump, Europe and Asia, however, maintained an excess of exports over imports, although imports grew more dynamically. Five leading countries have been identified by the indicator of total turnover in 2021. These five include China, the US, the Netherlands and Japan. They represent the three centers of world trade. Their total share in world exports is 37.4%, and in world imports - 38.0%. This gives reason to hypothesize that the general state and structure of world trade largely depend on the activities of these countries. Examining the changes that have taken place in the product structure of exports, it is possible to highlight several trends that are common to all leading countries. First of all, over the last 6 years, the specific weight of fuel and mineral supplies to the world market has increased in the structure of both global exports and all leading countries’ exports. Secondly, the growth of the specific weight of exports of chemical industry products can be attributed to the general trends of both world trade and certain leading countries. Thirdly, in contrast to the previous two upward trends, the share of trade in telecommunications equipment shows an overall downward trend. To assess the degree of synchronization of the structure of world trade and foreign trade of the leading countries, the correlation coefficients of these structures have been calculated. The most closely related to the world export structure is the US export structure, and the most closely related to the world import structure is the Germany’s import structure. This not only confirms the hypothesis about the decisive influence of these leading countries on world markets, but also provides grounds for forecasting world trends based on the study of foreign trade of individual countries. Thus, the conducted analysis showed that certain changes are taking place in the aggregated geographical structure of world trade, which are associated with the rapid expansion of the specific weight of the Asian region. North America and Europe are losing their positions both in terms of the international trade turnover and in terms of its individual components

Logistics Costs for Seaborne Trade in Nigeria: An Empirical Study

Seaports are fundamentally connectivity points in the global economic system, especially container ports, which are supportive and well-connected to major global trade routes. Regular and dependable services from shipping are critical to lowering the costs of trade, particularly transportation expenses, integrating supply chains, and enabling global trade. For Nigeria, trade costs seem to be an impediment to international trade development, and improving trade logistics performance is crucial to enhancing nations' trade acceptability. Field surveys were conducted in some selected seaports and outward environments, and hypotheses were examined in order to assess the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of the ports' facilities and activities. The result revealed that logistics costs, customs effectiveness, quality of infrastructure, government policies, and logistics service deliveries have significant effects on the development of seaborne trade in Nigeria. Therefore, institutional improvements will lower logistics costs, providing opportunities to expand seaborne trade, and benefit consumers worldwide through competitive freight costs.

Analysis of the Influence of International Economic and Trade Development on China's Economy

The development of international economy and trade is characterized by internationalization of production, liberalization of trade and regional integration. In order to realize the better development of China's social economy and enhance its international competitiveness and influence, we need to be aware of the positive effects of international economic and trade development on China's economy, such as attracting foreign investment, optimizing industrial structure, and developing foreign trade economy, as well as the negative effects of domestic economic development, such as international economic fluctuations, difficulties in introducing foreign companies, and difficulties in the development of labor-intensive industries. We should strengthen the development of high-tech industries, strengthen the development and utilization of talents, and create a reasonable foreign trade development mechanism, so as to ensure better economic development.

A global energy system perspective on hydrogen Trade: A framework for the market color and the size analysis

Existing research offers insights into production, operation, and cost efficiencies for the expanding variety of hydrogen (H2) technologies, suggesting that not a single one, but a portfolio of technologies, may be competitive in emerging markets. In turn, policy studies point out that economic and market conditions may be altered to promote certain options, for instance, renewable energy-based “green” hydrogen over fossil fuel-based alternatives. Such regionally oriented analyses, however useful, do not provide a perspective on a global market or international trade development, which is critical for infrastructure development, demand expansion, and supply commitments. This paper aims to fill this gap by addressing two interrelated questions: 1) what are the prerequisites for hydrogen trade in the context of a global transition to carbon neutrality and 2) how will regional energy system characteristics and regulations affect the growth and the “color” of the hydrogen market?Focused on green H2, we start our analysis with the evaluation of renewable energy generation potential of individual countries to identify geographic and economic factors and constraints for regional H2 development. Revealing resource-rich countries with green H2 export potential and resource-poor regions, likely green H2 importers, we turn to energy price data showing why green H2 is likely to face competition from other H2 colors. We capture those insights with an international hydrogen trade model, focusing on H2 supply diversity and factors determining local demand, including prices for renewable energy versus fossil fuels, emission constraints, and cost associated with carbon utilization and or disposal.Incorporating supply and demand drivers within a common framework enables us to embrace the complexity and to understand the discrepancies in existing H2 trade projections. We use the model to explore the role of carbon regulations, rate of renewable energy adoption, transportation costs, and input energy prices in the future H2 market evolution. To gain further insights into the future trade dynamics, we perform simulations mimicking the emerging German market. Hence, our work provides a unique comprehensive energy system perspective at the global scale, supported by analytical and empirical data analyses.

Roles of trade logistics to the development of international trade: A perspective of Nigeria

Background: Trade logistics service delivery is a key aspect in a country’s economic success in both national and international trade activities. It is critical in attaining competitive advantages for businesses actively involved in international trade. The improvement of services, infrastructure and logistics has helped to reduce delays and cost in cross-border goods transactions, resulting in a considerable growth in international trade.Objective: The study investigates the contribution of trade logistics service delivery to the growth of international trade. Overall improvement of logistics services could be a significant step towards long-term facilitation of trade.Methods: Respondents were given questionnaires using a simple random selection technique. Structural equation modelling was then used to examine the structural relationships among variables that had been assessed.Findings: The results reveal that the delivery of trade logistics services has a substantial impact on trade development. Improving the logistics industry also allows for increased trade volume.Conclusion: It was suggested that governments, specifically middle-income nations, explore trade performance measurements in order to better enhance the exports and imports processes as well as to efficiently and effectively boost trade through the optimisation of the supply chain management.

Research on the Path of Digital Economy Promoting Export Trade under the Background of High-quality Development

Digital economy is an economic form based on information. It focuses on the role of value chain and industrial chain in many factors affecting the high-quality development of export trade. At the same time, based on the main characteristics of the digital economy, the paper analyzes the mechanism of the digital economy on the high-quality development of export trade, and the role of digital industrialization and industrial digitalization is more obvious. At this stage, if China wants to promote the high-quality development of export trade, it should promote the development of digital industrialization and stimulate the innovation ability of foreign trade enterprises. Improve the digitalization level of export trade industry and create a sound ecology for the development of international trade; Improve the basic services of the digital economy and expand the development space of export trade; Build a good development environment for export trade with the help of digital economy; Promote the diversification of export trade products, the diversification of main bodies, and the development of low-carbon.

The Impact of International Trade Structure on the Environment and Countermeasures

The structure of international trade has a significant impact on the environment, so effective measures should be taken to control the environmental pollution caused by international trade. Therefore, it is necessary to do a good job in the research on the impact of international trade structure on the environment. This paper chooses international trade as the starting point, analyzes the influence of international trade structure on domestic ecological environment, and gives some countermeasures in combination with specific conditions, so as to realize ecological environment protection on the basis of promoting the development of international trade and avoid the old road of sacrificing the environment for economic development. It is hoped that the relevant discussion in this paper can provide reference for similar research.

Exploring the Path of Construction of Comprehensive Experimental Zone for Cross-border E-commerce in Jindong District

In recent years, due to the decline in the growth of traditional export trade, cross-border e-commerce as the representative of the emerging international trade development momentum is rapid, to promote the overall foreign trade to enhance the effect of a great deal. Big data analysis has been of great help to cross-border e-commerce trading companies in terms of cost reduction and profit improvement. This paper firstly introduces the current situation of the whole country, Zhejiang, Jinhua, and Jindong District, then analyzes the development environment of electronic commerce in Jindong District through data, and conducts SWOT analysis for the current electronic commerce environment, explores the current problems and puts forward corresponding solutions, and finally puts forward the prospect of the construction path of the comprehensive experimental zone of cross-border electronic commerce in Jindong District.

Research on the International Trade Performance Evaluation of Cross-Border e-Commerce Based on the Deep Neural Network Model

The rapid development of e-commerce international trade has driven the rapid growth of the economic system of international trade enterprises. This also means that industry competition is gradually intensifying, which also makes performance evaluation the key to cross-border e-commerce international trade. At present, my country’s research on the performance evaluation of cross-border e-commerce international trade is in a blank state. Therefore, this paper takes the international trade performance evaluation of cross-border e-commerce as the research object and, based on the deep neural network model, develops a cross-border international trade performance evaluation model, changes trade strategies, and improves trade performance. This paper first analyzes various neural network models, such as artificial neural network, “BP” neuron model, and LSTM neural network. This paper summarizes a deep neural network model that is conducive to the development of cross-border e-commerce and points out the problems in the current performance evaluation of cross-border e-commerce international trade: the e-commerce market supervision system is not perfect; the second is the inconsistent evaluation indicators; the third is the evaluation system. There are some differences with the actual. Finally, this paper puts forward relevant suggestions for the performance evaluation of cross-border e-commerce international trade and points out the advantages and disadvantages of various neural networks, as well as their roles in cross-border e-commerce performance evaluation, and compares these neural networks through experiments. Experiments show that among these neural network models, the deep neural network model is the best and has the highest accuracy and stability in e-commerce trade performance evaluation. In the later stage, we will improve the global logistics system, strengthen the application of big data technology, and improve the overall performance of global operations. First, a set of indicators is designed to evaluate the performance of e-commerce systems, using the enterprise key factor model concept. In addition, this evaluation method is different from the commonly used expert evaluation method and physical evaluation method in evaluating the construction quality, cost, education and growth ability, and performance level of the international business system of cross-border e-commerce.

Container Freight Rates and International Trade Causality Nexus: Evidence from Panel VAR Approach for Shanghai and ASEAN-6 Countries

Container shipping drives the development of international trade, yet previous studies have not fully appreciated the possible bidirectional causal relationship between container freight rates and international trade. In the context of the “twenty-first Century Maritime Silk Road,” we use data on export container freight rates and import/export data from Shanghai to ASEAN-6 countries (Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia) from February 2017 to January 2020 and apply a panel VAR to explore the relationship between maritime transport costs and international trade in the container shipping market. We use the freight rate data are from the Southeast Asia Freight Index, which is used for the first time in an empirical study. The quality and reliability of the freight rate data allow this paper to better identify causal relationships. The results of the panel Granger causality test and the orthogonal impulse response function suggest a bidirectional causal relationship between freight rates and export trade; to further explain, an increase in export trade lowers export freight rates, but an increase in export freight rates hinders export trade, and a growth in import trade unidirectionally raises export freight rates. We believe that international trade may impact freight rates through economies of scale and trade imbalances.

Problems and Countermeasures of China’s International Trade in Agricultural Products under the “Belt and Road Initiative”

To make China’s international trade in agricultural products develop more quickly and steadily, in this study, through the analysis of the development of international trade and the import and export of agricultural products under the strategy of “The Belt and Road (B&R),” in terms of agricultural products, the problems about the international trade in China are discussed. The results show that under the influence of “B&R,” China has established economic cooperation with many countries along the route. Even facing fierce international competition, it can promote the deep development of China’s international trade. Based on the discussion of the problems affecting the development of international trade of agricultural products in China, combined with the problems faced by the international development, in this study, the corresponding countermeasures are given, aiming to provide ideas for its future development. Therefore, the analysis of the development of international trade of agricultural products in China under the strategy of “B&R” has positive significance for finding the factors that affect the development of China’s agricultural products in international trade and also promoting the steady development of China’s international trade in agricultural products.

Trade momentum for alpha

I provide new evidence on the value-relevance of international trade development, the heterogeneous distribution of foreign economic benefits among market participants, and the value-add of additional geographic information disclosure by designing the Trade Momentum Index with publicly available citation share, export volume, and trade barrier data. Using a sample of 13,016 firm-year combinations of goods-exporting U.S. firms between 2008 and 2020, I find that a Trade Momentum Index-based, equal-weight hedge portfolio generates a statistically significant annualized alpha of 17.42% at a Sharpe ratio of 0.8255. This result exhibits robustness as the abnormal returns persist under different factor models.

Not Made by Slaves: Ethical Capitalism in the Age of Abolition

In this ambitious book, Bronwen Everill considers the varied, contradictory economic arguments against slavery and the slave trade across the Atlantic World. She expands on studies of the transatlantic free produce movement (most recently, Julie Holcomb's Moral Commerce) to focus more broadly on production, consumption, and trade, or “legitimate commerce” (3). Everill illuminates African, as well as British, American, and to a lesser extent, French, perspectives on how to undermine slavery and create a more ethical global economic system. She also contributes to the scholarly literature on slavery (and antislavery) and capitalism by focusing on consumerist arguments for free labor goods. Abolitionist arguments that free labor was more efficient than slave labor, and their promise of cheaper consumer goods, Everill argues, shifted attention away from other ethical considerations, including the condition of labor.European and American arguments for a more ethical capitalism developed in conversation with their African trading partners. Across the late eighteenth-century Atlantic, political, social, and religious leaders reacted to the excesses of the slave trade by abstaining from goods produced by enslaved people. Abolitionists argued that consumer demand fueled the slave trade and slavery. As a result, boycotts turned the consumer into a moral agent, aware of their place in a global supply chain. Everill shows how abolitionists focused on consumers in Africa as well as Europe and North America. As the outcry against the slave trade increased, abolitionists searched for more acceptable (though still profitable) commodities and settled, at least initially, on guns. Though African traders wanted guns for many reasons, abolitionists ultimately redefined them as immoral because they believed that guns only encouraged the slave trade.Everill focuses on the recurring figure of Zachary Macauley, British abolitionist, governor of the Sierra Leone Company, chairman of the African Institution, and founder of the firm Macauley & Babington, to show the pitfalls of defining certain types of commerce as ethical. Abolitionists emphasized the importance of consistency of beliefs and practices in legitimate commerce, but this exposed them to charges of hypocrisy when their opponents uncovered connections to slavery. Christian and Muslim societies alike viewed usury as immoral, but abolitionists like Macauley argued that credit was necessary to establish legitimate trade. At the end of the 1820s, however, Macauley's firm was unable to call in its debts and collapsed. Similarly, abolitionists argued against tariffs that protected goods produced by enslaved people, while lobbying for their own concessions from the government. One of Macauley's opponents accused him of having a “virtual monopoly” in his control over trade in Sierra Leone (140). Abolitionists opened themselves to criticism that they had conveniently defined a certain type of trade as ethical only to reap the profits.To replace the slave trade, abolitionists wanted legitimate commerce to be lucrative, but they argued that the benefits extended to former slave traders, former slaves, free settlers, and, most importantly, consumers. As Everill points out, their assertions of the positive economic impact of legitimate commerce increasingly emphasized the consumer. When prices did not immediately decline, British abolitionists turned to cheaper, often indentured, labor from distant parts of the world. Slavery's unique evil eclipsed their concerns over other forms of unfree or unfair labor even as the formerly enslaved disappeared from the conversation as either producers or consumers. In the United States, suspicions over the authenticity of imported free labor goods as well as the desire for a domestic market for free cotton meant that abolitionists saw white farmers as the prime beneficiaries of legitimate commerce.Everill's analysis traces abolitionists’ economic thought from the end of the eighteenth century through the American Civil War, and from Muslim reformers to British free traders to Philadelphia Quakers. Despite their small numbers, abolitionists’ evolving views of ethical commerce had a lasting impact on the development of international trade and continued to shape the moral choices of consumers and producers in the global market. Her broad scope means that the experiences of many of the entrepreneurs, merchants, traders, abolitionists, and consumers who cross her pages remain unexplored. For example, the reader will only glimpse Betsey Carew, a free Hausa butcher in Sierra Leone, who supplied meat to the army and then launched a successful importing and retail business, and James Mott, a Philadelphia abolitionist who tried to trade in free cotton before turning to wool (148, 98). As Everill shows, ethical capitalism created new winners and losers, and the beneficiaries changed with abolitionists’ arguments.

Modeling and analysis of port supply chain system based on Fabric blockchain

With the development of international trade, the core position of port transportation progressively emerges. However, most current port supply chain systems adopt a centralized data management mode. Each operator in the supply chain has its platform and data set, which is prone to form information islands and can create trust issues, resulting in the inefficient overall operation of the supply chain. To improve the efficiency of the supply chain, a port supply chain system based on Fabric blockchain (Fabric-PSChain) is designed and implemented. In the proposed system, four smart contracts are developed by taking advantage of the blockchain’s decentralized, tamper-free, distributed consensus, combined with the Role-Based Access Control Policy (RBACP), realizing the functions of access control policy formulation, enterprise list query, cargo order uploading, and order query. At the same time, the regulator node is added to the Fabric-PSchain system to enhance the credibility and security of data and meet regulatory compliance requirements. Experimental results show that the Fabric-PSChain system has vital confidentiality and data sharing that can speed up the operation of the port supply chain business and has significant application value for the shipping logistics industry.

Research on International Marketing Strategy in Sailvan Times Under the Background of Cross-Border E-commerce

Cross-border e-commerce is a new model of international trade development. The rational implementation of its international marketing is also constantly promoting the growth of China’s trade economy and has broad market development prospects. Through the research on the current situation of international marketing of the Sailvan Times company, combined with literature research, case analysis, and around 4P marketing theory, this paper puts forward the selection of precise products and personnel according to the risk challenges of the company’s product competition, exchange rate, promotion, channel infringement, and policy environment. The platform operates in compliance and strengthens the protection of property rights; Establishes an early warning mechanism of exchange rate; Focuses on commodities preparation and improves the emergency plan; Improves product quality; Pays attention to after-sales and logistics and other response suggestions. Therefore, Sailvan Times can clarify the self-positioning of international marketing, enhance the competitiveness and provide valuable suggestions for long-term development of the Sailvan Time.

The History of Development of Inland Transport Infrastructure: Technology and Economic Aspects. Part 1

The article, consisting of two parts, studies historical and economic aspects, physical infrastructure and technological basis of emergence, formation, and evolutionary development of inland transport infrastructure. In contrast to water and air transport, land transport, due to its linkage to a certain territory, developed in a very restrained and nonlinear manner. Its infrastructure, represented by the simplest paths and roads, of course, played a certain economic role, but until 18th–19th centuries was not considered as the basis for regular advance and exchange of goods. In different parts of the world, the infrastructure of land transport developed differently which was largely due to the prevailing socio-economic institutions. For many centuries, the technical condition of the inland transport infrastructure and its economic importance have not undergone any significant changes. Therefore, the end of the medieval era and a significant breakthrough in development of land transport are interdependent processes. The emergence of an era of economic growth, including development of international trade and an increase in social welfare, would not have been possible without a wellfunctioning land transport system. Nevertheless, land transport until the beginning of 19th century was not associated with a reliable, fast, and regular medium of exchange and travel. Only with the advent of railways the situation changed radically. Paved roads were also developing. From this moment land transport and its infrastructure has become the basis of the dynamic economic activity of society.

Dynamics of Development of Production and Export of Agricultural Products in the Context of Foreign Trade in Australia

The agricultural sector is one of the main branches of the Australian economy and of the country’s exports. This contributes to the considerable level of agricultural development and resource specialisation in international trade in general. Ukraine in this respect is like Australia, which makes the current state of the agrarian sector in both countries relevant. The purpose of this study was to investigate the state of the agricultural sector in Australia and find elements of development that would help change the Ukrainian agriculture. Statistical methods, such as graphical and statistical analysis, became the main methods in the study. This is conditioned upon the formation of conclusions mostly based on statistical information, graphs and tables presented in the article and constructed with statistical TradeMap. During the study, the author concluded that the fate of agricultural exports in the country was reduced due to the current orientation of the country towards the export of resources, namely iron. Within the structure of export of agricultural products, considerable changes are taking place, the main of which is the transition to production of animal products. Ukraine may adopt some features of the sector in Australia, namely how the country is conducting investment policy in the sector. Nevertheless, it was found that there are significant differences in the agricultural sector of both countries. Because of this, it is impossible to completely change the plan of operation of the Australian agriculture. Research on the future development of the industry in Australia, considering current trends and their impact on foreign policy and trade in the country, may be promising. This article will be useful for studying the functioning of the economy of Australia and Ukraine, namely their agricultural sectors; to form the national policy of the agrarian sector and foreign trade; for students to learn economic disciplines and write corresponding theses.

Multiple chikungunya virus introductions in Lao PDR from 2014 to 2020.

The first documented chikungunya virus (CHIKV) outbreak in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) occurred in 2012–2013. Since then, several imported and a few autochthonous cases were identified by the national arbovirus surveillance network. The present study aimed to summarize the main genetic features of the CHIKV strains detected in Lao PDR between 2014 and 2020. Samples from Lao patients presenting symptoms compatible with a CHIKV infection were centralized in Vientiane Capital city for real-time RT-PCR screening. Molecular epidemiology was performed by sequencing the E2-6K-E1 region. From 2014 to 2020, two Asian lineage isolates (e.g. French Polynesia; Indonesia), one ECSA-IOL lineage isolate (e.g. Thailand) and one unclassified (e.g. Myanmar) were imported in Vientiane Capital city. Sequences from the autochthonous cases recorded in the Central and Southern parts of the country between July and September 2020 belonged to the ECSA-IOL lineage and clustered with CHIKV strains recently detected in neighboring countries. These results demonstrate the multiple CHIKV introductions in Lao PDR since 2014 and provide evidence for sporadic and time-limited circulation of CHIKV in the country. Even if the circulation of CHIKV seems to be geographically and temporally limited in Lao PDR, the development of international tourism and trade may cause future outbreaks of CHIKV in the country and at the regional level.

NEW DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE THEORY AND DIFFERENTIATION OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE PATTERN

The development of international trade theory has experienced two main stages: traditional international trade theory and new international trade theory.New international trade theory rises with the development of economic theory,it constantly introduces new economic concepts into the eld of international trade research,explains the causes of the emergence and development of international trade from the perspective of depth,and greatly promotes the development of international trade theory research.Since the end of the Second World War,the pattern of international trade has not been divided,which is reected in the rapid rise of developing economies and the multi-polarization development of international trade.