International trade and growth will be severely affected by the debt problems of the developing countries for at least the next 5 years. International trade will not significantly increase for the United States or other nations unless both the developed and developing countries find fundamental solutions and take aggressive action to overcome this situation. The accumulation of international debt by the developing world was initiated after the first oil shock in 1973-74 when OECD countries accommodated the first increases in oil prices by allowing international liquidity to increase accordingly. The recirculation of this liquidity led to the debt buildup. The contractionary monetary policy response to the second oil shock of 1979-80 led to the current debt payment problem.