The Global Economy and Local Markets

The Global Economy and Local Markets
Globalization, and the resultant global trade, has made it possible for U.S. consumers to access products that are not manufactured or assembled in the U.S. Some examples of products that can be purchased at local stores in the U.S. only due to global trade include coffee, fruits such as bananas and avocado, and spices such as cinnamon. The coffee that is sold in American local stores is largely sourced from Colombia, while bananas primarily come from Guatemala. In the same way, cinnamon is supplied from Sri Lanka. Coffee and most fruits are not economical to grow in the U.S., while a spice such as pepper cannot be grown in the country during winter (Perry, 2017). From these examples, it may be concluded that global trade greatly affects local stores in terms of product availability as well as pricing.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may be used as an example illustrating how global trade affects local markets. With the government issuing strict stay-at-home orders, a sizeable number of businesses and local stores were closed (Mead, 2020). At the same time, demand for non-essential products dropped significantly, thereby affecting product prices. For instance, the prices of exported meat dropped by 1.8% in February of the year 2020 (Mead, 2020). At the same time, supply of products has also been affected by the pandemic and the measures taken by governments to contain it.
Going by the above examples, one may conclude that the prices and availability of products in the local markets are always affected by events taking place in other countries. To some extent, this is true. However, the impact or changes are not felt or seen frequently due to a number of factors. For example, the food market in the U.S. obtains its supplies from three sources: stored food, imports, and domestic production (Johansson, 2021). This means that food supply in local stores will go down immediately an undesirable event takes place in the countries from which the U.S. imports food.

References
Johansson, R. (2021). Will COVID-19 threaten availability and affordability of our food? www.usda.gov/media/blog/2020/04/16/will-covid-19-threaten-availability-and-affordability-our-food
Mead, D. (2020). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food price indexes and data collection. www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/article/the-impact-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-on-food-price-indexes-and-data-collection.htm#startcontent
Perry, M. (2017). My personal global economy-20 products from 11 different countries touched and improved my life today. www.aei.org/carpe-diem/my-personal-global-economy-20-products-from-11-different-countries-touched-and-improved-my-life-today/