International trade as a process of choice of technique

• International trade is often presented as the result of change of technique. • The main players are big OEMs at the head of global value chains. • Trade is part of cost-minimizing strategies: the result of choice of technique. • The paper argues that international trade patterns depend on absolute advantages. International trade is often presented as a game played by national states. If this is partially true, especially in the case of major countries, it is only a side of the coin. Changes in international trade patterns are therefore treated as the result of a change of technique process, taking place also due to international diffusion of technical knowledge. In fact, the main players are multinationals, or big OEMs at the head of Global Value Chains. Trade is an integral part of their cost-minimizing strategies: this is not a process of change of technique, but rather of choice of technique – which then determines change in technique. The objective of the present paper is to show how the structure of international trade depends not on comparative advantages, but rather on absolute advantages .