International Marketing Handbook -- 1981, Edited By Frank E. Bair. Gale Research Co., Book Tower, Detroit, Mi 48226; 2,380 Pp. In Two Vols., $95 Per Set.

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It's hardly likely that small businesses will be setting up subsidiaries in the Gilbert Islands or Papua New Guinea, but just in case, International Marketing Handbook provides trade profiles for those two countries and 137 others throughout the world. For each, data is given regarding exports and imports, duties, best prospects in marketing, currency, banking, foreign investment sentiment, gross domestic product figures, development plans, economic facilities, and dozens of other statistics that range from highly useful to basically irrelevant. For major markets, the books' tables and descriptions are extensive and the sections of general information enlightening (viz., how to assess the creditworthiness of a customer in a socialist state). Just about the only commercial question not addressed is how to handle the problem of a periodically hardening and softening dollar. But the compilations in toto suffer from outdatedness -- an inevitable affliction in so ambitious an undertaking.