Study Links U.S. Deficit, Third World: Growth Seen as Aid To Domestic Economy
The U.S. trade deficit could be substantially reduced if the Third World debt crisis is defused sufficiently to allow middle-income developing countries to become important customers for American products again.</br></br>That is a central conclusion of a new policy study by the Overseas Development Council, a local think tank devoted to debt and development issues in less advanced nations.</br></br>The report argues that the next U.S. president will be faced not only with the tough assignment of restoring the United StatesÛª domestic strength, but with fundamental changes that now bind America's future inextricably "with the progress of the developing countries."</br></br>It also contends that for the longer run, policymakers in both the rich and poor nations must deal with the potential impact of an impending "third industrial revolution," based on new and complex technologies that will be more difficult for the poorer nations to introduce and manage. That could further harm many Third World countries, "an outcome that would not be in either the economic or political interests of the United States,Û the report says.</br></br>The ODC study, edited by ODC President John W. Sewell and project director Stuart K. Tucker, acknowledges that under any set of assumptions and circumstances, ÛÏthe [U.S.J trade deficit will not disappear quickly." But it suggests that if the growth rate in the Third World can be expanded from currently projected levels of less than 3 percent to 6 percent, an additional $32 billion might be lopped off the U.S. trade deficit by 1992.