Whether trade of the industrial countries with the non-industrial countries declines in an industrializing world has always been a controversial question. The present paper examines this controversy with reference to events in the postwar period. The validity of the findings is tested under alternative classifications of an industrial area and in terms of current value and deflated value figures. Recent changes in the commodity composition of exports of both areas are then noted. The main finding is that the progressing industrialization in the postwar years did not unfavorably affect the volume of exports of the industrial area, although it did change, to some extent, the direction and composition of the international commodity flows. However, certain conditions in the postwar period do not allow us to assume that we can resolve the controversy in question.