Throughout the last 50 years, there have been periodic discussions of the need for promoting greater cooperation and trading opportunities in the developing world, particularly between developing countries. One reason is that the ratio of gains usually favors the developed world countries that sell the finished products back to the developing countries that sent them the raw materials. Thus, if developing world countries traded between each other more frequently, there would be greater equality in the terms of trade and the job creation and production of goods and services would directly benefit millions in the developing world. To facilitate greater cooperation between developing countries, the Group of 15, G-15, was formed. The G-15 is composed primarily of some of the larger and more powerful developing world countries, although there are countries such as Sri Lanka and Senegal in it as well.
Several obstacles remain as daunting challenges to the expansion of South-South trade.
These include competing economies, traditional rivalries, and inadequate transportation systems. Traditional rivalries include these production battles as well as actual wars, migratory problems, and fear and resentment that inhibit greater cooperation between the countries. Another problem within the developing world is that even when all other trading conditions are favorable the transportation systems, particularly overland, are often prohibitively expensive, slow, or do not exist. Indeed, it is sometimes easier for developing countries to ship their products far greater distances to the developed world than to some of their neighbors. By lowering tariff and other technical barriers to trade, all countries involved can access neighboring markets and greater cross-border investment is often one of the results.