A trading nation is a nation in which foreign trade constitutes a large portion of its gross domestic product. That means if you look at the gross domestic product of many nations around the world, you will see that the United States, as the greatest nation ever created in the history of mankind, is not far behind in terms of GDP and certainly comes out first when it comes to overall competitiveness. If you do a little bit of digging, you will find that this is not an uncommon statistic. And when comparing the United States with other countries around the world, you can easily see that the U.S. accounts for roughly 40% of the gross domestic product in each of these nations.

So why does the U.S. remain such a large exporter of goods? It’s not just because of our technological superiority. Yes, we have the largest number of technological advancements in the world but a lot of that is also attributable to the fact that we are the largest exporter of goods in the world. When it comes to being a trading nation, there is nothing that can be more important than being a nation that is the largest exporter of goods. As such, the U.S. remains a major global player.

However, is it all good news? Does it mean that the United States is in the clear lead when it comes to being the largest exporter of goods internationally? The reality is that it doesn’t necessarily mean that way. Because while we remain a major exporter, we must continue to learn how to be a better trader in order to maintain our lead.