So what is your trade footprint?

Put simply, this is the amount of goods and services you use and consume that have been traded (bought and transported from other countries). The size of your trade footprint is affected by the amount of land, resources, water and energy involved in manufacturing or transporting traded items. 

How far does your trade footprint reach today?

Try to measure your trade footprint! Look at the clothes you wear, the toys and games you play with, the food and drink you consume in one day: Where do they come from? How far have they travelled? How did they travel to you? What resources were used to make them and transport them to you? You may be surprised to see just how connected you are to the world through trade! And just how BIG your trade footprint is!

The trade footprint: how it measures up

• International trade is worth $10 million a minute. But poor countries only receive $40,000 or 0.4% of this trade.
• Rich countries spend $320bn each year on subsidising agriculture - six times the amount they spend on foreign aid.
• The average European cow is subsidised by around $800. Ethiopia's total national income per person, per year is around $100.
• If a jar of coffee purchased in a supermarket costs £3, just 3pence (1%) goes to the coffee grower
• If Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Latin America were each to increase their share of world exports by just one per cent, the resulting increase in income could lift 128 million people out of poverty.