Graphic Summary of Trade between the United States and the other Americas

N & EVER before have the peoples of the Western World been more conscious of their interdependence and of the many advantages that may come from expansion of their trade relationships. Never before have we been forced to turn to the nearby tropical lands for so many raw materials formerly imported from far away lands between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The fact that the inhabited lands of the Americas stretch through more than 100 degrees of latitude, explains many of the widely different climatic zones in the lands of the Western Hemisphere. Since this great expanse of habitable lands crosses the equator and extends into the north and south temperate zones, the crop regions on the two sides of the equator are in many ways complementary. The extensive wheat-producing lands of North Dakota and Canada are buried in snow at the time when wheat is being harvested in the Argentine. Our corn is harvested in August or September but in the south temperate zone corn is taken from the fields in March or April. Wool is clipped from the backs of sheep at widely separated periods in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Cattle and sheep are fattened and prepared for the market at different times. As time marches on much greater advantage may be taken of the complementary periodicity of the climates in North and South America than has yet been dreamed of. The tropical lands of the Americas are already providing products that move in part northward and in part southward. The warmer lands are a great asset to all the peoples in the Western World and as time passes and more fruits, hemp, sisal, chicle, quinine, mahogany, balsa wood, and crude rubber come from these warmer areas to the cooler lands, we shall recognize more fully than we do today the value to all of us of the very warm, moist lands between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Comparatively little attention has been given as yet to the economic development of the tropics. In the brief paragraphs which accompany the graphs prepared for this article we shall review the salient facts pertaining to the trade between the United States and other Americas in 1940. The data used are the latest that can be released. War has interrupted the even flow of commerce of the world and at this moment trade is undoubtedly somewhat different in amounts from that reflected in the diagrams. Nevertheless the figures indicate in a very accurate and significant way the areas of certain surplus products and the normal movement of such commodities. The diagrams show at a glance what the different nations of the Western World wish to sell and what they need to buy. Our Trade with the People of Canada. There is a great difference in the number

Business · Geography · International trade · Political science · Latin American rural development · Regional Development and Innovation · Whitehead's Philosophy and Applications