Linking Up to Distant Markets: South to North Exports of Manufactured Consumer Goods.

The most successful developing economies in exporting finished consumer goods have been Hong Kong, Taiwan (China), and the Republic of Korea. These three economies, exported slightly over half of the manufactured goods shipped from developing economies to OECD countries. They enjoyed a larger share of the market for sixteen categories of consumer goods-close to 72 percent. Other Asian countries supplied another 19 percent, while 7 percent came from Latin America and the Caribbean. The U.S. is the leading market for these same sixteen categories, buying 46 percent, compared to 14 percent shipped to Germany, 8.5 percent to the Great Britain, 36 percent to the European Community as a whole in 1980. Developing economy firms have succeeded remarkably in linking up their production with the needs and fast-changing demands of stores and customers thousands of miles away. In research at the World Bank, through interviews and consultant papers, the institutional arrangements and the marketing aspects of this trade are explored to learn how this linking is achieved. This paper sketches some of the findings of the marketing aspects of this trade.