TRADE AS AN ENGINE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH The underdeveloped countries of the world look upon international trade as an instrument which will generate their economic growth. Much of the thinking in this area may be traced to be penetrating influences of the nineteenth-century writings of John Stuart Mill and Alfred Marshall, who laid stress on the "indirect" or "dynamic" benefits brought about by international trade as to propel economic growth. Such a thinking has been supported by the remarkable development of the United States and other countries of recent settlement in the temperate zones. However, as Robert M. Steen has aptly pointed out. while international trade may facilitate economic growth, it is not, in itself, a sufficient condition for growth. Many economists feel, and rightly so, that underdeveloped countries must manifest a desire and provide impetus for change and improvement. This is so since no country can allain any appreciable degree of economic development if its people are resistant to change. It is of interest to consider the fact that the exports of the developing countries are predominantly primary products, accounting for over 90 per cent of the total, while their imports consist of manufactured goods. The reverse observation holds true in the case of developed countries, which depend upon the developing countries for imports of primary products, including fuels, and upon each other for imports of manufactured goods. It is likewise to be noted that the developed countries were major sources of manufactured goods in particular, and supplied a substantial portion of foodstuffs entering into the underdeveloped regions of the world. . The Need . for Goals In most developing countries there is now al least a vague recognition that foreign trade plays a crucial role in economic development. Despite this recognition, most. developing countries have not thought out what that role actually is in specific terms. In particular, it is far from clear what the export goals are to which investment, production plans and export promotion efforts must be directed Apart from well-. known traditional products, usually very little attention is devoted to the development of other export potential. On the import side, because of the limitations imposed by the scarcity of foreign exchange, the import targets are somewhat clearer, but quite often these bear little relation to export goals; in some cases import policies exert the unintentional effect of actually discouraging exports. This inattention to export planning is at the root of many of the difficulties that developing countries face in their efforts to expand foreign exchange carvings