ABSTRACT
International trade continues to increase, and while comparisons over time are distorted by price inflation, the growth is nonetheless impressive. In recent years, services – actions carried out for money, rather than goods exchanged for money – have become an increasingly important part both of advanced national economies and of world trade. But for almost all countries, traded goods – merchandise – continues to be far more important. Some countries are so dependent on international trade that the combined value of imports and exports exceeds their national income. Yet the USA, which remains a key engine of the world economy, has a relatively low dependence on international trade. This gives it the capacity to recover quickly when the economic cycle turns down.
