The Changing Role of South in World Trade: A Study of Select South Countries

Abstract

The present study is related to the growing South-South Economic Cooperation with special reference to an analysis of the changes in South–South Trade and South-World Trade. It is an attempt to analyse the trade patterns of developing economies from a comparative global perspective. The main objectives of this study are to examine the growth of export and import of the South to the North and the World; to analyse the growth of South-South export and import of the top 10 countries of the South and to examine the country specific shares of the role of South countries in South exports and imports over time. For this purpose, secondary data has been collected from the UN database for select countries from 2011-2020 and analysed using various statistical formulas. Findings of the study reveal that the ratio of South countries exports to World exports, though stagnant in the first half, has increased in the latter half of the period under study, whereas the ratio of South imports to global imports has been fluctuating.