The first step is to examine the balance of trade. Figure 10.2 plots the imports and
exports of the 40 trading countries accounting for 89% of world seaborne trade (see
Table 10.2), with each dot representing a country or region. Imports are shown on the
vertical axis and exports on the horizontal axis, so a country with balanced trade would
fall on the dotted line which bisects the chart on the diagonal. In fact few do, especially
amongst the bigger trading countries. The graph shows that trade volumes are very
diverse, with one group of countries, including north-western Europe, USA, Japan,
China and South Korea, strung out to the left of the dotted line and another group,
including the Middle East, Australia and East Coast South America, strung out along
the horizontal axis. This focuses on one of the main drivers of trade, the imbalance of
supply and demand for resources between regions of the world.The balance of imports and exports