Trade experts are remarking on two major changes taking place throughout the world.

First, industrial production is shifting from the U.S. and other developed countries to developing countries. Second, the balance of economic activity in rich, developed countries is moving from manufacturing to services.

• In 1950, the U.S. accounted for more than half the world's economic output -- but only one-quarter in 1990.

• In the U.S. and Britain, the proportion of workers in manufacturing has shrunk since 1900 from around 40 percent to barely half that.

• Due to cheaper labor costs, many big western companies will soon have more employees -- and customers -- in poor countries than in rich ones.

• By the early 1990s, about one-fifth of the total output of American firms was being produced outside of the U.S.

One example of the shift can be glimpsed in the textile industry. Since 1975, textile production has vastly increased in China, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Indonesia and South Korea. Meanwhile, as a proportion of the world total, textile production has decreased in the U.S., Japan and the former Soviet Union.