Editing International trade (section)

==International trade versus local production==
===Food security===
{{Main|Food security}}
The trade-offs between [[local food]] production and distant food production are controversial, with limited studies comparing environmental impact and scientists cautioning that regionally specific environmental impacts should be considered.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rothwell |first1=Alison |last2=Ridoutt |first2=Brad |last3=Page |first3=Girija |last4=Bellotti |first4=William |title=Environmental performance of local food: trade-offs and implications for climate resilience in a developed city |journal=Journal of Cleaner Production |date=15 February 2016 |volume=114 |pages=420–430 |doi=10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.04.096 |bibcode=2016JCPro.114..420R |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652615004710 |access-date=4 December 2020 |language=en |issn=0959-6526 |archive-date=13 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313031049/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652615004710 |url-status=live }}</ref> A 2020 study indicated that local food crop production alone cannot meet the demand for most food crops with "current production and consumption patterns" and the locations of food production at the time of the study for 72–89% of the global population and 100 km radiuses as of early 2020.{{clarify|date=December 2024}}<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dunphy |first1=Siobhán |title=Majority of the world's population depends on imported food |url=https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/agriculture/majority-of-the-worlds-population-depends-on-imported-food/ |access-date=17 May 2020 |work=European Scientist |date=28 April 2020 |archive-date=4 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200504205506/https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/agriculture/majority-of-the-worlds-population-depends-on-imported-food/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="phys-localfood">{{cite news |title=Relying on 'local food' is a distant dream for most of the world |url=https://phys.org/news/2020-04-local-food-distant-world.html |access-date=17 May 2020 |work=phys.org |language=en |archive-date=29 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200429051805/https://phys.org/news/2020-04-local-food-distant-world.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kinnunen |first1=Pekka |last2=Guillaume |first2=Joseph H. A. |last3=Taka |first3=Maija |last4=D’Odorico |first4=Paolo |last5=Siebert |first5=Stefan |last6=Puma |first6=Michael J. |last7=Jalava |first7=Mika |last8=Kummu |first8=Matti |title=Local food crop production can fulfil demand for less than one-third of the population |journal=Nature Food |date=April 2020 |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=229–237 |doi=10.1038/s43016-020-0060-7 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Studies found that [[food mile]]s are a relatively minor factor for carbon emissions, albeit increased food localization may also enable additional, more significant, environmental benefits such as recycling of energy, water, and nutrients.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yang |first1=Yi |last2=Campbell |first2=J. Elliott |title=Improving attributional life cycle assessment for decision support: The case of local food in sustainable design |journal=Journal of Cleaner Production |date=1 March 2017 |volume=145 |pages=361–366 |doi=10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.01.020 |bibcode=2017JCPro.145..361Y |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652617300276 |access-date=4 December 2020 |language=en |issn=0959-6526 |archive-date=8 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108230846/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652617300276 |url-status=live }}</ref> For specific foods regional differences in harvest seasons may make it more environmentally friendly to import from distant regions than more local production and storage or local production in greenhouses.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Edwards-Jones |first1=Gareth |title=Does eating local food reduce the environmental impact of food production and enhance consumer health? |journal=Proceedings of the Nutrition Society |year=2010 |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=582–591 |doi=10.1017/S0029665110002004 |pmid=20696093 |language=en |issn=1475-2719|doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Qualitative differences and economic aspects===
Qualitative differences between substitutive products of different production regions may exist due to different legal requirements and quality standards or different levels of controllability by local production- and [[governance]]-systems which may have aspects of [[security]] beyond resource security, [[environmental protection]], [[product quality]] and [[product design]] and [[health]]. The process of transforming supply as well as [[labor rights]] may differ as well.

Local production has been reported to increase local employment in many cases. A 2018 study claimed that international trade can increase local employment.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Zhi |last2=Wei |first2=Shang-Jin |last3=Yu |first3=Xinding |last4=Zhu |first4=Kunfu |title=Re-examining the Effects of Trading with China on Local Labor Markets: A Supply Chain Perspective |journal=Working Paper Series |date=13 August 2018 |url=https://www.nber.org/papers/w24886 |access-date=4 December 2020 |publisher=National Bureau of Economic Research |doi=10.3386/w24886 |s2cid=158243880 |doi-access=free |archive-date=22 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201222061538/https://www.nber.org/papers/w24886 |url-status=live }}</ref> A 2016 study found that local employment and total labor income in both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing were negatively affected by rising exposure to imports.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Malgouyres |first1=Clément |title=The Impact of Chinese Import Competition on the Local Structure of Employment and Wages: Evidence from France |journal=Journal of Regional Science |date=2017 |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=411–441 |doi=10.1111/jors.12303 |bibcode=2017JRegS..57..411M |s2cid=56047849 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jors.12303 |access-date=4 December 2020 |language=en |issn=1467-9787 |archive-date=21 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121063923/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jors.12303 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Local production in high-income countries, rather than distant regions may require higher wages for workers. Higher wages incentivize [[automation]]<ref>{{cite web |title=How Artificial Intelligence Could Widen the Gap Between Rich and Poor Nations |url=https://blogs.imf.org/2020/12/02/how-artificial-intelligence-could-widen-the-gap-between-rich-and-poor-nations/ |website=IMF Blog |date=2 December 2020 |access-date=4 December 2020 |quote=Higher wages Advanced economies have higher wages because total factor productivity is higher. These higher wages induce firms in advanced economies to use robots more intensively, to begin with, especially when robots easily substitute for workers. Then, when robot productivity rises, the advanced economy will benefit more in the long run. This divergence grows larger, the more robots substitute for workers. |archive-date=3 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201203215838/https://blogs.imf.org/2020/12/02/how-artificial-intelligence-could-widen-the-gap-between-rich-and-poor-nations/ |url-status=live }}</ref> which could allow for automated workers' time to be reallocated by society and its economic mechanisms or be converted into leisure-like time.

====Specialization, production efficiency and regional differences====
Local production may require [[knowledge transfer]], [[technology transfer]] and may not be able to compete in efficiency initially with [[Division of labor |specialized]], established industries and businesses, or in consumer demand without policy measures such as [[eco-tariff]]s. Regional differences may cause specific regions to be more suitable for a specific production, thereby increasing the advantages of specific trade over specific local production. Forms of local products that are highly localized may not be able to meet the efficiency of more large-scale, highly consolidated production in terms of efficiency, including environmental impact.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

===Resource security===
[[File:Water, energy and land insecurity in global supply chains.webm|thumb|A video explaining findings of the study "Water, energy and land insecurity in global supply chains"]]
A systematic, and possibly first large-scale, cross-sectoral analysis of [[water security|water]], [[energy security|energy]] and [[land degradation|land]] in [[security]] in 189 countries that links total and sectorial consumption to sources showed that countries and sectors are highly exposed to over-exploited, insecure, and degraded such resources with [[economic globalization]] having decreased security of [[Global supply chain management|global supply chains]]. The 2020 study finds that most countries exhibit greater exposure to resource [[Risk management|risks]] via international trade – mainly from remote [[production (economics)|production]] sources – and that diversifying trading partners is unlikely to help countries and sectors to reduce these or to improve their resource [[self-sufficiency]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Global trade linked to resource insecurity |url=https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/sustainability/global-trade-linked-to-resource-insecurity/ |access-date=3 December 2020 |work=Cosmos Magazine |date=26 October 2020 |language=en-AU |archive-date=3 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201203082429/https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/sustainability/global-trade-linked-to-resource-insecurity/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Dunphy |first1=Siobhán |title=Is globalisation compatible with sustainable and resilient supply chains? |url=https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/agriculture/is-globalisation-compatible-with-sustainable-and-resilient-supply-chains/ |access-date=3 December 2020 |work=European Scientist |date=20 November 2020 |archive-date=2 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202042615/https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/agriculture/is-globalisation-compatible-with-sustainable-and-resilient-supply-chains/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Globalized economy making water, energy and land insecurity worse: study |url=https://phys.org/news/2020-10-globalized-economy-energy-insecurity-worse.html |website=phys.org |access-date=3 December 2020 |language=en |archive-date=4 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204174006/https://phys.org/news/2020-10-globalized-economy-energy-insecurity-worse.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Taherzadeh |first1=Oliver |last2=Bithell |first2=Mike |last3=Richards |first3=Keith |title=Water, energy and land insecurity in global supply chains |journal=Global Environmental Change |date=28 October 2020 |volume=67 |page=102158 |doi=10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102158 |s2cid=228952251 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S095937802030741X |access-date=3 December 2020 |language=en |issn=0959-3780}}</ref>