Potential options for international trade

Purpose: The main purpose of the article was to perform a critical analysis of existing theories of international trade and develop proposals for their improvement, which will allow to make the right decisions regarding trade policy in the future and to qualitatively predict the trends in the development of international trade and its impact on the socio-economic state of countries, regions and enterprises. Design/methodology/approach: The main research methods in the article were the method of critical literary analysis and the method of morphological analysis. Findings: Among all the theories of international trade, the most well-founded are those that explain it by natural and geographical differences between countries and differences in the costs of producing the same goods in different countries. The remaining theories of international trade require additional justification or interpret differently the influence of natural and geographical differences between countries and differences in the costs of producing the same goods in different countries. Research limitations/implications: Further research is promising in the following areas: developing a methodology for determining the share of each of the two causes of international trade in terms of the total volume of international trade of individual countries and in terms of bilateral trade between countries; assessment of the existing distance resistance and forecasting its changes for various goods in bilateral trade between countries in terms of regions, modes of transport and time; activities of firms that can, in order to optimize taxes, carry out real or fictitious actions in the field of international trade; the impact of the national security factor on international trade. Originality/value: There are only two reasons for international trade and, accordingly, only two most well-founded theories of international trade, which makes it possible to have three options for international trade for a single country or between any two countries. Keywords: International trade, reasons for international trade, theories of international trade, distance resistance, options for international trade. Category of the paper: Research paper.