International Trade-Technology ll

It is important to separate the different components of international trade between fixed and mobile assets. It is useful to view the fixed assets of international trade as the support functions for the mobile assets. For example seaports, airports and ground terminal for truck and rail services are some of those fixed assets. Domestic and international regulations are the administrative tools that run global commerce within the structure of treaties, unions, and agreements. This paper will focus on the mobile equipment use for surface, air and water transportation used to transport merchandise across continents and country borders. Ocean is by volume the largest mover of commodities and finished goods around the world besides coastal trade also known as cabotage. Navigable rivers as well as intra-costal waterways serve as the feeder means to major ports that serve the continental trade across oceans also known as blue waters. Other important assets to the waterborne connections are the canals and the straits that become the limiting factors to the size of ships needing to get thru either because water depth or passage girth.