Global Trade

​Global Trade

By Keyada Blackman-Greene

What is the definition of trade?

Trade is the buying and selling or bartering of goods and services. Trade is also referred to as commerce. Five thousand years ago people in cities had to trade for food. They needed to devise ways to travel to trade goods and services. The ancient Romans built the first roads to make trade easier. Technology has made trade between cities and countries much faster and safer.

Trade happens because people need or want goods that they do not have. People also trade for services when they do not have the time or the skills to do things. Trade between countries happens for similar reasons. For example, some countries have resources, such as oil, or skills, such as car manufacturing, that other countries will buy.

Reasons for Trade

Importing Vs Exporting

Importing is when a country brings goods into its borders from another country, like a child importing a toy from another country to play with. Exporting is when a country sends goods out to another country, like a child exporting their handmade drawings to share with friends.

Exporting

• Definition: Sending goods or services out of a country to another country.

• Think of it as: "Exit." You are exporting something out to another country.

• Example: Your country might export cars it made to another country where people want to buy them.

• Who: The country that sells the goods is the "exporter".

Importing

• Definition: Bringing goods or services into a country from another country.

• Think of it as: "In." You are importing something in to your country.

• Example: Your country might import bananas from a country that grows them, because your country doesn't grow its own.

• Who: The country that buys the goods is the "importer".

Why It Matters

• Trade: Importing and exporting are how countries trade with each other.

• More choices: It gives people more choices for what to buy.

• Helps economies: It helps a country's economy by selling things it makes a lot of (export) and by getting things it needs (import).

​Producers vs Consumers

A producer is someone who makes or provides goods and services, like a baker who bakes bread or a person who gives haircuts. A consumer is someone who buys and uses those goods and services, like the person who buys the bread or gets the haircut. Many people are both, such as when a baker uses money from selling cookies to buy a toy.

Producers and Consumers

Examples:

The family who buys cookies from the bakery

The person who buys a haircut

A person who buys a new toy

The person buying lemonade from a stand

​Consumer

Examples:

A baker who makes cookies

A farmer who grows vegetables

A person who cuts hair

A child who sells lemonade from a stand

Producer

Multiple Choice

Countries trade with each other when they exchange goods?

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Global trade is trade between ____?

• cities in one state

• states in one country

• countries

• neighborhoods in a city

Multiple Choice

What is trade?

• traveling for fun

• buying and selling goods and services

• saving money

• making friends in other countries

Multiple Choice

Trade happens because people need or what goods and services they don't have

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

What does a country do when it imports goods?

• sends goods out of the country

• brings goods into the country

• throws goods away

• trades only with neighbors

Multiple Choice

What does a country do when it exports goods?

• brings goods in

• hides goods

• sends goods out

• buys from others

Multiple Choice

A country that sells goods to another country is called an importer.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Which of these is a producer

• a person who buys cookies

• a person who eats cookies

• a person who sells toys

• a baker who makes cookies

Multiple Choice

Which of these people is a consumer?

• a child who sells lemonade

• a farmer who grows vegetables

• a person who buys a haircut

• a person who paints houses

Multiple Choice

Trade helps people have more choices of what to buy.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Why do countries import and export goods?

• to share what they make and get what they need

• to make friends

• because they like to travel

• because they have too many things