These are the world's biggest importers
![Bottles of red wine imported from the U.S. are seen at a office of Alexander Wine in Shanghai, China July 6, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song](https://assets.weforum.org/article/image/large_3Zu3u8sCKvviX0mk1HJ-BXU0G9zcZerzjfZmCjS6ZG8.jpg)
The United States takes home the number one spot with $2,409 billion of imports in 2017. Image: REUTERS/Aly Song
![A hand holding a looking glass by a lake](/uplink.jpg)
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:
Trade and Investment
For most world leaders and corporate executives, the swing of the global pendulum to more protectionist policies has been an unpleasant surprise.
That’s because the consensus view from both economists and economic historians has been that measures like the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which triggered a trade war during the Great Depression, greatly exacerbated circumstances that were already quite dire.
It’s common for tariff increases to be countered by retaliatory measures, and this can often translate to lower levels of international trade and decreased economic growth across the board. During the period of 1929 to 1934, according to the U.S. State Department, world trade decreased by 66% – largely a result of subsequent trade wars after the passing of Smoot-Hawley.
For the above reasons, international barriers to trade have been falling for decades – until now, of course.
Largest Importers
Which countries can throw their weight around the most with tariffs and retaliatory measures?
It’s those that import the most goods – and today’s infographic from HowMuch.net shows the world’s largest importers in 2017, according to recently released data from the World Trade Organization.
Here are the top 15 largest importers, globally:
The United States takes home the number one spot with $2,409 billion of imports in 2017, about 13.4% of the global total. It’s worth mentioning that this is $860 billion higher than the country’s exports in 2017, and that the difference between the two numbers is the hotly-debated trade deficit.
China and Germany come in the #2 and #3 spots respectively, with $1,842 billion (10.2% of global total) of imports for China and $1,167 billion (6.5% of total) for Europe’s largest economy.
After the big three, no other country has a number exceeding 5% of global imports, but Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Hong Kong (China), and the Netherlands all surpass the 3% mark.
Don't miss any update on this topic
Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.
License and Republishing
World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
The Agenda Weekly
A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda
You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.
More on Trade and InvestmentSee all
EU and Latin America renew efforts to ink trade deal, and other global trade news to read this month
Iza Lejarraga-Walkenhorst
August 14, 2024
Lim Chow-Kiat
July 30, 2024
Charles Sekwalor
July 25, 2024
Hamad Al Hammadi
July 22, 2024
Nii Simmonds and Ayodele Okeowo
July 17, 2024
Patrick McMaster
July 17, 2024