Primary and processed primary products still account for nearly half the South's total merchandise exports to the North, and for many developing countries remain the sole source of foreign exchange earnings. Moreover, both casual observation and serious research (Whalley & Colleen, 1996) suggest that trade in primary products is shaped by differences in natural resource endowments, in accordance with the general principles of H-O theory (Whalley & Colleen, 1996).

However, land is of much less concern in the narrower context of this thesis. Of course, all manufactures contain some primary products (and what are called here 'processed primary products are classified as manufactures in production and employment data). Possession of a particular natural resource may therefore give a country a comparative advantage in manufactured goods embodying the primary product concerned. But this is not necessarily or generally the case, even for processed primary products, since most raw materials are internationally...
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