Meaning & use
overseas trade
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
the business of buying and selling goods with other countries, especially those across the sea.
Grammar: Uncountable: talk about the amount of overseas trade, not 'an overseas trade'.
Patterns
- overseas trade with a country
- overseas trade in something
- increase overseas trade
The port has handled overseas trade for centuries.
Tariffs can make overseas trade more expensive for everyone.
The government wants to expand overseas trade with Asia.
Common combinations
- overseas trade with
- Overseas trade with neighboring countries grew last year.
- expand overseas trade
- The company plans to expand overseas trade into new markets.
- overseas trade in
- Overseas trade in coffee is important to the region.
- overseas trade policy
- The new overseas trade policy lowers import taxes.
Synonyms and how they differ
- foreign trade
- Very close in meaning, but foreign trade is more common in official and academic writing.
- international trade
- Broader: it includes trade between all countries, not only those across the sea.
- export
- Focuses on selling goods out of a country, while overseas trade can mean both buying and selling.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: overseas trade or foreign trade?
overseas trade vs foreign trade
Often used in the same way, but foreign trade is the standard term in economics and government reports.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'overseas trade' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Overseas trade is an uncountable noun phrase for business between countries, so it fits 'has grown'. The other options treat it as a countable job or trip, which is wrong.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “overseas trade”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.