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The World's Most Traded Goods [Infographic]

This article is more than 6 years old.

Every day, huge volumes of goods and services are shifted around the globe for immense sums of money, but which product is the most imported and exported? Perhaps unsurprisingly, cars were the most traded item worldwide in 2016, accounting for 4.9 percent of global trade with a market value of $1.35 trillion, according to data published by Teletrac Navman. Germany was the top car exporter that year, sending $150 billion worth of cars abroad while the United States was the world's top importer with $173 billion.

As can be seen in the following infographic, refined petroleum is the second most traded item worldwide, accounting for 3 percent of all trade with a total trade volume of $825 billion. The United States was actually the most important country for both imports ($41.2 bn) and exports ($61.9 bn) of refined petroleum in 2016. Integrated circuits are the third biggest product imported and exported with a trade volume of $804 billion, 2.9 percent of the global total. Vehicle parts and computers round off the top five with a volume of $685 and $614 billion respectively.

Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)

Statista