What three factors have facilitated the rapid growth of international trade over the past 50 years?

Question

What three factors have facilitated the rapid growth of international trade over the past 50 years?

Answer 1

1. Cheap energy and the concomitant low transportation costs.

2. The end of the cold war which allowed for improved relations between the West and India/China and encouraged those two countries to open up.

3. The economic boom in the industrialized countries which lead to greatly increased demand.

4. The development of electronics in general and computers in particular which contributed to the economic boom, to greater demand for goods, and to higher productivity (i.e. lowered costs) in the manufacturing sector.