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Globalization can be considered as a system of flows: Freight (trade). Mainly asymmetrical flows taking place to satisfy material demands ranging from raw materials to finished goods and all the intermediate goods in between. The asymmetry is reflective of trade imbalances as well as the general linear organization of supply

International trade promotes interdependencies since nations acquire what they lack and export what they have in surplus. Conventionally, nations were mostly limited to their national market, while external markets were protected by high tariffs and transportation costs. Low trade levels involved low levels of interdependency and economic efficiency. A decline

Source: United Nations Statistics Division. SITC is a classification of the commodities being subject to international trade. It was designed to help provide a categorization needed for economic analysis, facilitate the international comparison of trade data and offer clear categories to impose tariffs and duties. A single numeral represents a

From the 15th to the 19th century, a pattern of global trade flows emerged, mainly based on mercantilism. For centuries, China, India, and Southeast Asia have been the origin of trade flows dominated by luxury goods (spices, silk, tea, porcelain, etc.). This involved a positive capital flow as their trading

To understand the principles and differences between absolute and comparative advantages the above conceptual demonstration considers two countries having the same size, the same amount of resources and both having to use without trade half of their resources in two economic sectors (textiles and steel). The only difference is their

The difficulties in producing a vast array of goods are linked with differences in levels of development. The potential economic benefits of international or inter-regional trade are numerous and well known since the seminal work of Adam Smith (1776) and David Ricardo (1817). Without trade, each country must produce a

Economic integration processes such as trade agreements and customs unions have greatly contributed to the growing fluidity of freight flows across borders, notably in Europe and North America. Still, border effects have not disappeared, and they continue to influence the structure of hinterlands and freight distribution. The three most common

Photo: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, 2005. Freight flows between China and the rest of the world tend to be imbalanced, with a greater quantity of outbound traffic. Since the port of Hong Kong is an important outlet for the Pearl River Delta’s exports, a significant share of cross-border freight traffic concerns

Source: Adapted from Dr. William Anderson, University of Windsor. National transportation networks are usually independently established and connected to other networks on an ad hoc basis. Comprehensive international infrastructure projects are uncommon since they require advanced forms of cooperation. The above figure shows a hypothetical transportation network that is bisected

The precise delineation of boundaries is relatively new in human history. Before the availability of surveying and cartographic technologies, impediments to travel such as mountain ranges, water bodies, or even features such as broad forests and deserts were used to separate the territories of political entities (Antecedent boundaries). In Europe,