Changes in the international division of labour We are now again in a period of considerable changes in the international division of labour. Global trade is again growing at a markedly faster pace than production, thanks to technological advances and a sharp reduction in the costs associated with trade in goods, services and information. Trade barriers have been removed. In the early post-war years, tariff barriers between a few industrialised countries were dismantled. The later rounds in GATT, now the WTO, embraced both a far broader agenda and a greater number of countries. Today, almost all countries participate as members or observers and the issues are far-ranging. In addition to dismantling tariff barriers, antidumping measures have been introduced, subsidies have been removed and agreements have been entered into for textiles and agricultural products. In the current round, issues related to health, the environment and development are also being discussed. Political changes have amplified this tendency. At the beginning of the 1990s, China changed course and is now a member of the WTO. Its share of total exports is growing rapidly. India is at the startingline. These countries have large labour forces that offer their services at very low wages, and these labour resources are available to companies that compete on world markets. The working-age population in rural China is nearly the same as that of the entire OECD area. Many are underemployed and are seeking work in urban areas. Low labour costs and more efficient transport and communication attract labour-intensive production.
Svein Gjedrem: Economic perspectives Address by Mr Svein Gjedrem, Governor of Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), at the meeting of the Supervisory Council of Norges Bank, Oslo, 16 February 2006. The Charts in pdf-format  can also be found on the website of the Norges Bank. *  *  *  1. Introduction On the way into this building, we pass a statue of the nineteenth century Norwegian actor Johannes Brun. He performed at Christiania Theatre, which once stood in the square in front of the main entrance. Brun was an acquaintance of Henrik Ibsen, who also worked at the same theatre for a period – part-time as dramatic consultant – when the theatre he had been directing closed. This was a difficult time for our great dramatist, both personally and financially. He was struggling to overcome writer’s block and the public’s preference for the mediocre and the trivial. 1 Nineteenth-century Christiania (now Oslo) was described as “O great and little city! What a cold and surly sky broods over you!”. 2 A bleak time for Ibsen, perhaps. But the Norwegian economy was not faring all that badly. The economic expansion that had begun in the 1820s gathered momentum from the middle of the century. The British navigation acts were repealed in 1849 and the Norwegian fleet was permitted to transport other countries’ goods to and from England. Norway had suddenly become a major exporter of services. The tonnage of the Norwegian commercial fleet increased almost six-fold from 1850 to 1880. 2.