Intra-Regional Trade and Factor Mobility

Rodney Wilson

Chapter 5 in Trade and Investment in the Middle East, 1977, pp 90-107 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract At first sight there appears to be tremendous scope for trade and commerce between the nations of the Middle East because, to a large extent, they complement each other with regard to their resources. Egypt, for example, with its plentiful manpower but lack of capital, is the natural centre for the supply of labour-intensive goods such as textiles or clothing for the whole region. Saudi Arabia, because of its abundant financial resources but labour shortages, is an obvious location for capital intensive industries, especially those requiring a plentiful supply of cheap energy, although the country’s technological deficiencies must first be overcome. In contrast Israel boasts a high level of technology and has a well trained workforce, but, like Egypt, has a great shortage of capital. It is therefore well suited to supply the whole region with technologically advanced goods, such as machine tools or electronic equipment. Iran, with its long craft tradition, could similarly be the main centre in the Middle East for the production of high-quality consumer products including furniture, clothing, and possibly footwear, particularly for the higher-income end of the market.1

Keywords: Saudi Arabia; Middle East; Arab Country; Factor Mobility; Trade Diversion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1977
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-03299-0_5

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781349032990

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-03299-0_5

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().