In the end, it is the resource and public investment policies of the resource exporters that determines whether or not they are on a sustainable path. Nevertheless, developed countries are to a large extent reliant on foreign resources to support their domestic economies and, moreover, several of these countries — e.g. The Netherlands — have expressed concern over their demand for resource depletion in other countries. A var¬iety of motivations underlie this concern such as exter¬nalities associated with resource extraction (Bosch and Ensing, 1996). More broadly, resource-importing (developed) countries could be concerned about unsustainable behaviour on the part of resource-exporting (developing) countries for reasons both of self-interest and altruism.
From a purely self-interested point of view, importers may be concerned about the security and stability of sup¬ply of natural resources. If important sectors of their economies are dependent on resource imports, then supply shocks and price shocks are potentially quite damaging. Unsustainable behaviour on the part of resource exporters — overly rapid depletion of subsoil resources, for instance — creates risks for importers. Tracing the flows of natural resources in international trade and mea¬suring the degree of dependence on individual countries or regions may therefore be in the interest of developed countries.