international-trade

David Ricardo's 1817 insight about comparative advantage explains why countries trade and why the gains are real but unevenly shared. This explainer works through the arithmetic, then covers trade deficits, tariffs, supply chains, and the evidence on who pays.

Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, the United States and Canada are among the most important crude-oil exporters, but the ranking changes when analysts switch between gross barrels, net exports, crude, refined products and trade value.