B(T)FF… Best Trading Friends Forever

We can say that Mexico believes her top trading partner is the United States because the value of her exports to the US (2013: $370,826,831) added to the value of her imports from the US (2013: $370,746,056) is exceeded by none of her other trading relationships.

Using the imports + exports concept to make your decision, for each of the following maps, decide whether the #1 trading partner of the colored countries is…(Answers are at the bottom of the page.)

• Russia
• U.S.
• China
• France

Map #1

Map #2:

Map #3

Map #4

Your map answers should take you to one conclusion. As Quartz points out in their article on trading partners, globalization is really about “geographic proximity.” More specifically, 44 countries identify the US as their top trading partner, 35 name China, 14 say France and 9, Russia.

Finally, talking about globalization we should note that David Ricardo, the economic thinker who first described comparative advantage, is surely applauding from his grave.

Sources and resources: For the most amazing cornucopia of data on trade, do go to the International Trade Centre. Related to the World Trade Organization, ITC presents trade data on countries as tables, graphs and maps. The amount of data that is clearly presented for free is mind-boggling. ITC was the source of my Mexico data. Otherwise, I used Quartz for my maps and conclusions.

Answers:

• Map #1: France
• Map #2: China
• Map #3: Russia
• Map #4: US