South Centre Analytical Note - April 2005

INTRODUCTION

Information on non-agricultural commodities is not as widely available as for agricultural commodities. The purpose of this paper is to identify, in contrast to agricultural commodities, what is the extent of dependency of developing countries on non-agricultural commodities, what are the main characteristics of this dependency, which developing countries are most dependent on this type of commodities and what are the challenges they face in the trade arena and from a wider developmental view.

Many developing countries are highly dependent on non-agricultural commodities. Although declining prices, price fluctuations, commodity export dependence and lack of diversification are similar to agricultural commodities, there are other issues with pose specific challenges to their sustainable development.

This paper is structured in the following manner: we will first define what nonagricultural commodities are, then we will identify which commodities developing countries are most dependent on, we will examine their trade patterns and price tendencies and then we will identify the challenges faced by developing countries dependent on non-agricultural commodities.

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