What is trade?
Buying and selling things is called trade.
Trade is an important way for countries to make money and has been happening across the world for hundreds of years.
Today, goods are carried around the world in container ships from port to port and by aeroplane.
Export and import
People in the UK can sell goods to other countries who want to buy them.
Sending goods to sell in other countries is called export.
People might buy goods from other countries for various reasons:
- they can't make the goods themselves
- the goods could be cheaper
- they might be better quality.
Importing is when one country buys things from another country. For example, in the UK it is hard to grow fruit such as bananas and oranges, so these are imported from other countries.
Sometimes countries need experts from abroad such as engineers, scientists or teachers. These experts can sell their services to people around the world and this is called a service industry.
The service industry is the UK's main industry today. We import more goods than we export.
Watch: Trade
I’m packing up my home-made jumpers to sell in France.
When we make things in one country and sell them in another like this it’s called export.
We’re able to export things we make, when people in other countries want to buy them.
Sometimes because they can’t get them from anyone else, or because they are cheaper or better quality.
I’ll also take some of their delicious local cheese while I’m here, to sell back home.
When we buy things from abroad and bring them home, we import them and we’ve been importing and exporting goods between countries for hundreds of years, buying and selling goods like this is called trade and it’s an important way to make money.
Trade happens between businesses and countries across the globe, with container ships and aeroplanes carrying goods like toys, food and even cars, from one place to another.
And it’s not only goods like these, sometimes people need experts to help them with things like engineering, banking and even teaching.
These experts sell their services to people around the world.
So these are called service industries.
In the Middle Ages, Britain made a lot of money selling goods like wool to other countries, but these days we sell more services.
Whatever we buy or sell, trade allows us to get the things we want, and make money at the same time.
Ooooh, lovely!
Important trade relationships
The UK's biggest trading partners are the United States of America (USA), Germany and China.
Some of the UK's top exports are:
- cars
- medicine
- aircraft parts
- gold
- financial services
Some of the UK's top imports are:
- crude oil and gas from Norway, the USA and the Middle East
- clothing from China
- computers from China
- cars from Germany
- fruit from Spain
- fish from Iceland
Watch: What happens at ports?
Goods for trade are transported in different ways such as by road, sea, air, or river. A lot of trade is moved across seas and oceans in large containers, which are loaded and unloaded onto ships at ports.
Port of Rotterdam is one of the busiest ports in the world. Find out more about what happens there in this BBC Teach video.
Activity: Quiz – Trade
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