The Foreign Trade of Western Samoa

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the structure of external trade of Western Samoa and the types of changes and developments in the import and export sectors which it is considered are requisite in the interests of the country's future economic growth. A problem facing most developing countries such as Western Samoa is lack of economic information. Until recently, with the exception of commodity trade statistics and population censes, most other statistical information concerning Western Samoa has been either unavailable or inaccurate to the point of being misleading. The Samoan Government, recognising the growing need for comprehensive and up-to-date statistics in order to plan future economic requirements, recently intensified research in the statistical field, and in 1963 a Government Bureau of Statistics was established. The Bureau published its first statistical bulletin in January 1964. Certain important statistical variables, in particular those relating to national income, are nevertheless still unavailable, and consequently some analytical sections in the following pages are not as definitive as would have been desirable.