Our grocery stores are filled with items that were largely farmed or manufactured far from their final locations where they are bought and sold. For example, bananas likely come from Costa Rica or Brazil, limes and avocados from Mexico, wine from France, Australia or Chile, or any number of processed offerings from China. These are only a few of the many examples of grocery items moving throughout the world via the supply chain. Comparative advantage exists in each and every country around the globe, this make sourcing products globally much more efficient. An attempt to source everything that American consumers needed or wanted, using American resources to do so, would be extremely inefficient and would detrimentally affect prices and global supply. The demand that consumers place on individual markets allows countries with the highest comparative advantage to thrive in the free global market.
Further complicating the simple purchase of groceries are the policies placed by global governments. Governmental agencies place tariffs, regulatory restrictions, quotas, and even embargos, which can affect the dynamics of the free market. Recently, last year’s ban on U.S. and European Union food imports in Russia, is an example of a sanction that impacts some countries negatively, while creating opportunities for other countries that may not have been competitive if the sanctions were …show more content…
Choices made at the grocery store are driven by many large-scale factors that allow goods to move about the global supply chain. Changes in consumer spending, such as a decrease due to joblessness caused by massive layoffs, potential cause a detrimental “ripple-effect” through the global economy. Finally, governmental taxation policies can effect businesses and the government’s ability to operate efficiently. To put it briefly, global macroeconomic policies effectively impact the lives of virtually all