Trade: Where the Surpluses Are

Everyone has heard about balance-of-payments deficits — the amount by which a country's outgo exceeds its in come in foreign trade and international finance. Rarely mentioned is the pleasanter side: balance-of-payments surpluses. Yet they exist, cropping up in highly unexpected places, sometimes for unique reasons. The Irish Republic last year enjoyed its first surplus — about $6,000,000— since 1961, thanks greatly to rising exports of textiles, food, refined petroleum and metal ores. Impoverished Tanzania achieved a $28 million payments surplus in 1966, despite its per capita annual income of about $65,...