International trade : In International trade, goods and services are exchanged among the countries. Trade beyond the goegraphical boundaries of a country is called International trade. 

For example- trade between India and USA is an example of International trade. In simple language, we call it foreign trade.

Need for International trade
We may understand the importance of international trade from the following points :

(i) All countries are not equally competent to produce all types of goods. Therefore, they have to depend on other countries for obtaining the goods of their need.

(ii) Natural resources of the world are unequally distributed. For example, fertile land, minerals, forests resources and climatic conditions, etc. are unequally distributed. Therefore, each country tries to specialize in the production of that commodity in which it has natural endowment. It exports these goods to earn profit. On the other hand, it imports those commodities for which it does not have a natural endowment. In this way, every country tries to minimize the cost of production and to gain from International trade.

(iii) Due to the International trade, advanced technology is obtained. This transforms developing and backward countries into advanced countries.

(iv) Domestic, competition also increases due to International trade. 

They adopt two measures:

(a) Improving the quality of goods.
(b) Increasing sales volume.

(v) Presently, income from international trade is a large part of Gross National Product. In all the developing countries, International trade is an important component of their development.