ht to @ianbremmer for tweeting this nice illustration of major trading partners. Please click on the image to be able to actually visualize the visualization:
My first thoughts are:
1. the US image didn’t surprise me much
2. I had no idea that Brazil, Peru, Australia, and much of Africa had China as a trop trading partner
3. Germany is a regional powerhouse (duh!) but so is South Africa to a certain extent.
4. Almost no one has Russia as their top trading partner
5. Old colonial ties are indeed hard to break! Most of Francophone Africa still has France as their top trading partner
Cherokee Gothic 