Disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi and effects on trade

I decided to read into the disappearance of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi and how his dissapearance may effect the world trade. In particular that between Saudi and the U.K. The United Kingdom exports over $4 billion worth of goods a year to Saudi and in turn Saudi export nearly $2.4 million a year in goods to the U.K. The main of these UK exports were in heavy goods machinery, arms and automobiles. whereas the majority of imports from Saudi came from the oil. Since the UK no longer is self sufficient on its oil consumption they need to rely more on foreign imports such as that from Saudi. On the other hand, Saudi relies heavily on the UK for their arms machinery as the UK are their second highest provider behind America. However, it is much more of the UK needing good relations with Saudi rather than the other way around.

In my opinion Saudi could heavily affect the world market trade because of their impact in the oil industry especially through their exports. If they wanted to they could increase their price in oil dramatically which would increase their revenue to spend on more imported products because everyone nowadays is so heavily reliant on the consumption of oil. However, it is very important for the UK and US to keep good relationships with Saudi because of their needs from each other. They both see huge benefits from trading with each other and the increasing need for certain goods and services at an increasing rate will be hugely important in the foreseeable future.





https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45863548