0 a situation in which the value of goods a country exports (= sells to other countries) is greater than the value of goods it imports (= buys from other countries), or the size of this difference --
1 a situation in which the value of goods that a country exports is more than the value of goods it imports, or the size of this difference: --
We now have a trade surplus of about 3 million tonnes, compared with a deficit in 1982.
When they came to power, there was a trade surplus in manufactured goods.
We could, of course, quite easily make sterling exceedingly scarce—by blocking all sterling balances, restricting imports even further, and building up a large trade surplus.
There was a trade surplus of about £1·3 million sterling in 1963 compared with a deficit of about £1·5 million in 1962.
A nominal trade surplus of £5 billion five years ago has turned into a £7 billion non-oil trade deficit this year.
The entertainment business probably produces a greater net plus balance of trade surplus per man-hour than any other in the country.
For the same period in 1979 there was a crude balance of trade surplus of £36·5 million.
He said that a manufacturing trade surplus of £5 billion in 1978 was reduced to a deficit of £7 billion last year.
