Alana Slater

Using data from the UN Comtrade, a lot of important information on global imports and exports can be found. The country that I chose to analyze using this data was the country of Colombia. Colombia’s top 5 top import partners were the United States, China, Mexico, Brazil, and Germany. Colombia’s top 5 export partners were the United States, Venezuela, China, Netherlands, and Ecuador. Since 1988, the United States has been Colombia’s top trading partner by a large margin. The country’s top import was nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery, etc. Colombia imported $7,918,266,012 of this commodity in 2013. The country’s top export was mineral fuels, oils, and distillation products. Colombia exported $39,278,441,081 of this commodity in 2013. In the same year, Colombia had a negative trade balance of $559,326,246. This means that imported more than they exported. In previous years they had exported more than they imported resulting in a positive trade balance. By looking at the graph below, many things can be determined about Colombia’s trading patterns.

            From this chart, it is clear to see that Colombia needs to import a lot of heavy machinery and electrical equipment. This makes sense because Colombia is a poor country that doesn’t have the equipment or materials to contrast mass quantities of those types of products. However, this is a very important commodity that is needed in everyday life so it’s obvious that Colombia would need to buy a lot of those kinds of products. This chart also shows how heavily the country relies on selling natural kinds of resources. They depend heavily on exporting mineral fuels, oils, and distillation products. They also export a lot of coffee, tea, spices, pearls, precious stones, and plants. Colombia is not a very developed country so they need to do a lot of gathering and farming that produces products that they can export to other countries.

            There is some discrepancy between the data that Colombia reports and what its trading partners report. The biggest difference is with the United States. Colombia reported that in 2013 it imported $13,871,018,432 worth of goods, but the United States reported that Colombia only imported $11,043,803,462. There is also a big discrepancy between India and Colombia with regards to exports. Colombia reported that it exported $2,958,866,149 worth of goods to India but India reported that Colombia only exported $62,398,479. That is about a $2 trillion difference for both examples. Colombia also imports from a lot more of a variety of countries than it exports to. For the most part, Colombia only exports to the United States.

            From 1991 to about 2003, imports and exports from Colombia stayed at a pretty constant level from year to year. In 2003, they both began to steadily rise until 2011 where the both seem to be leveling off again. The rise in trade probably represents a relatively good time for the economy. The plateaus most likely represent a time where the economy of Colombia was not growing. The year with the most imports was 2013. In 2012, Colombia had the most exports it has ever had.

Sources:

UN Comtrade Data | SAS Visual Analytics. December 13 2015. http://www.sas.com/software/visual-analytics/demos/un-comtrade-basic.html