International Trade & Finance - Speech or Presentation Example

Imports and Exports balancing Maintaining surplus balance of payments is critically important for the economic growth of a country. Exports bring more foreign currencies to a country which in turn can be used for making payments for importing necessary goods or services. Excess exports to imports result in favorable balance of payments whereas excess of imports over total exports of a country during a stipulated period of time result in unfavorable or deficit balance of payments. When there are surplus imports to US, for instance, since it largely depends on foreign oil products, the balance of payment can be said to be deficit.

Until 2011, America’s dependence on foreign oil products such as crude oil, natural gas, fuel oil etc has always been driving trade deficit. In 2011, US imported $ 332 billion of petroleum related items and this was greater than what it exported (Amadeo, 2012). When there are surplus imports of a particular product or service in to a country, traders involved in selling of the same will have to face import barriers if they are already in effect. Tariffs and quotas are thus examples of trade barriers and they cause traders increase their expenses of tax and other charges.

International trade and GDP Foreign trade in goods or services is primarily a channel for economic integration and this seems to be a critically important tool for small countries since small countries are more integrated in relation to their gross domestic product. Small countries, in contrast to large countries like USA, Canada, India, China, specialize in a limited numbers of sectors and thus they need to export and import more goods and services to satisfy the domestic demands (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2010, p. 58). Within the domestic market, increase in exports mean that GDP is high and since exports bring foreign currency to the domestic market, more and more traders will be able to meet their payments for importing highly demanded products or services from other countries.

Similarly, when there are surplus imports to the domestic market, it may adversely affect home products and balance of trade figures as well. For university students, international trade is benefitting in a way that they gain wider access to large numbers of universities abroad, scholarships, information, libraries and so on. Trade restrictions and international relation Trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas are found to have impacted adversely on the economic as well as political relation between countries.

Tariffs are taxes imposed by a government on imports of certain products from certain or all other foreign countries. Quotas are physical limiting for importing gods from certain or all foreign countries. By imposing these two restrictions, for instance, the country attempts to minimize bringing of certain goods or services from certain countries and this in turn affect the exports of those countries. This is how tariffs and quotas impact the economic as well as political relationship between two countries.

Foreign Exchange rates In international trade, countries need to exchange goods and services for currencies that are acceptable between buyer and seller. Different countries do accept different currencies and therefore buyer needs to exchange their currencies with seller’s currencies to make payment convenient between them. Foreign exchange rate is the price of one currency in