[OPE-L:7940] Re: Re: Re: unequal exchange

From: Alejandro Valle Baeza (valle@servidor.unam.mx)
Date: Wed Nov 06 2002 - 09:15:21 EST






  




clyder@gn.apc.org wrote:
Quoting gerald_a_levy <gerald_a_levy@msn.com>:

  
Re Paul C's [7914], Alejandro's [7917] and my [7919]:

I asked Paul previously, in [7903]: "What is required to empirically 
demonstrate the existence of unequal exchange?".  Paul didn't 
answer that question in [7914] but instead asserted -- without an 
attempt at explanation -- that  the concept of unequal exchange in the
 works of [listmember] Samir Amin  struck him  as  "complete rubbish".

    

One would have to demonstrate that the same commodity when produced
in the metropole sold at a higher price in a 3rd country
than when the same commodity was produced in a colony.

Thus if Japanese steel sells for a higher price in Brazil
than South African steel, then there is unequal exchange occuring.


  
I think that the main issue in Amin and others is that trade may cause impoverishment. In my view this argument is correct but the argumentation is incorrect. In orthodox economics international trade is always  beneficial hence (unorthodox)  Marxian economics should examine  critically this assertion. One example  is Shaik's work on international trade. Amin is another important  contribution on this issue even some of his arguments are wrong.
In my view  unequal exchange must be defined in value terms not in prices.  Has Paul a good definition of unequal exchange?




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