The new constraints of international integration of developing countries

Abstract

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the new integration conditions of developing countries into the international division of labor, taking into account the changes that it has undergone over the past three decades. It is a problematic that fits into the double logic of internalization economies striving to anchor since the 1980’s. On the one hand, we are witnessing the configuration of regional blocs, free trade areas and the growing economies globalization embodying the abolition of frontiers and allowing the more and freer international location of firms, on the other hand. We will try to explain, theoretically, how globalization has tended to rely on the conquest of specific skills rather than the exploitation of common factors obeying the logic of comparative advantage based on low production costs. On one side, the diffusion of technology leads to a restructuring process of international production systems following a selective basis, striking- first-the countries with natural endowments. On the other side, the specialization acquired by industrial countries on specific skills is permanent and combined with comparative advantages recoveries in sectors deemed unmarked according to the product life cycle theory, or unskilled labor-intensive following to the neo-factorial international trade developments.

Keywords: Competitiveness, integration, technological transfer, technological advantages.