International Trade Organization

International Trade, 1953: A report on international trade developments during 1953 was issued by GATT in June 1954. During the year 1953, a significant change had occurred in the prevailing post-1950 pattern of trade; the unfavorable position of the western European industrial areas with the accompanying dollar deficits had been largely redressed, with a gradual reversion to the pre-Korean price structure. Important shifts in the flow of goods between the industrial areas had contributed to a more balanced trade pattern than at any other time in the post-war period. The level of trade among the three non-industrial areas had remained remarkably constant, but there had been a significant slowing down of the exchange of goods between the areas producing primary products and the industrial areas of the world; while the volume of exports of the primary producers had increased, the prices of their commodities had fallen to an extent that made export proceeds decline heavily. However, there had been an intensification of exchanges between each industrial area and the particular primary producing region with which it was most closely associated.