Every
year countries throughout the world exchange goods and services.
Some countries import
goods (bring in goods from other countries) and some countries
export goods (send goods
to other countries). Whether a country exports or imports
all depends on what the country produces and what the country
needs.
What
products does your country import?
What
products does your country export?
The
United Kingdom imports a lot of fruit and vegetables from
Spain and it exports products like cars, iron and steel to
hundreds of countries in the world.
So,
why do countries trade?
Countries
trade business because
every nation wants the best for its inhabitants. If we take
the United Kingdom as an example, we see that they import
tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries and many other groceries
from Spain. They do this because as a nation they do not have
the correct environment to produce these products all year
round, whereas Spain does. The UK also imports these products
because they buy them cheaper than if they were to cultivate
them themselves.
Governments
can control international trade in different ways. The most
common means are tariffs
and quotas. A tariff is
a tax imposed on imported goods, whereas a quota is the maximum
quantity of a product that may be admitted in a country during
a certain period of time.
In
1957 The European Community was
founded with the aim of creating a single European Market.
This EC has effected trade between European countries. Tariffs
and quotas are slowly being eliminated.
