Jamie, one of the UK's biggest exports in the last decade or so has been oil. I don't know what the current figures are, but I once found a site which gave the UK's top exports by value to France and oil was first or second on the list. One of our top "food" exports is Scotch whisky! Our big manufacturing export is arms equipment, eg. the BAE contracts with Saudi Arabia under investigation. Apart from some big pharmaceutical companies like Glaxo, much of our remaining exports are foreign owned companies manufacturing here, e.g. Nissan. We have gone down the American route of borrowing from the rest of the world to finance a standard of living which hasn't been earned. To finance this we are slowly selling our big companies to foreign owned ones, recent examples being S&N, O2, after which their profits are repatriated to the owner countries and in the long term that makes us poorer. You don't see France, Japan or Germany doing that. At least the USA can feed itself!

Alan, Newcastle,

I'm surprised nobody mentioned anywhere that China is investing a lot of its profits into its army.

Interesting times ahead.

Michael, New York, US

Oil reaches $114 and the majors look for new supply everywhere. As they recently found a new oil field in a few thousand meters down the ocean,someone hast to build the tools to get it up. Then do a litle research and figure where the heart of oil drilling engeneering -export- can be found...Prost!

david, Maastricht,

Tara in London...its the Germans! In 2005 they exported twice as much as we did. More even than the UK and Italy combined. Impressive...

steve, watford, UK,

Germany don't export many consumer goods, but rather high quality, hi tech manufacturing machines and materials.

As a British citizen, I'm jealous of their manufacturing prowess. Simply put, Germany is the most advanced manufacturing economy in the world and all we have is a bunch of cowboys selling debt to each other.

I struggle to understand how the UK is 8th on the export list? What do we actually export other than 'financial services'? Whisky?

Jamie, Halifax, West Yorkshire

Germany... read the article

David, Woking,

Who's the first biggest exporter then??

Tara, London,

Good that the developed nations are not engaging in Trade Wars with emerging economies like what was going on betweeen The EU and The USA even as recently as a decade ago .

Gurumoorthy, Trichy, India

You don't mention in the article that if you remove dangerous and cheaply made export goods from the total, along with illegal weapons and nuclear material bound for terrorists and dictators, and export goods made by children under the age of 12 and labor camp hostages in leg irons, then China ranks at 126 in the world, having jumped ahead of Burkina Faso and Lichtenstein.

Pogue Mahone, Dublin, Ireland

Max from FL, I guess your look-up skills are not very honed, try: http://tse.export.gov/NTDChartDisplay.aspx?UniqueURL=bogabd45u3ygpfukmm1odur2-2008-4-18-5-44-36 to see some US export figures & products.

Peter, DC,

An interesting aside. I was interested in US exports and was innocent enough to google, "top 10 US exports", and actually expected an answer. None was forthcoming, at least in any simple, discernable form. (Thirty years ago, I could have looked for a list and found it in almost any encyclopedia or some other publication). I finally realized that we are exporters of very little in any real volume except for Soy products, (top 'o the list), food, and the rawest of raw materials. Germany, on the other hand, exports some of the best manufactured goods produced anywhere in the world, as do most other "First World" countries. Not good for the US...not good at all. It will drop us to a "Second World" status in quality of life faster than you can say Dubya is a dunce. Suggested study: read the results of Roman Imperial policy on local Italian Industry. Makes for interesting, frightening reading.

Max Cadenhead, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA

UK - the world's second largest commercial services exporter? How is that possible with the high tax and cost of doing business?

Gabriel, Heald Green, UK

Doug, US - How can you 'import to' somewhere? Do you mean from Iran, or export to Iran? Messy.

And surely the Adidas stuff, made in Asia, doesn't count as part of their total?

Jeff , Manchester,

Germany is just one country of the 27 nation EU. Maybe you should rejig the figures and include all the nations. The US and China would be way behind.

Jon Kingsbury, Sodbury, UK

The Germans build some of the best machines in the world, and they sell a lot of them, because other countries are unable to equal the quality and continued innovation which German companies have to offer. If you go the Mint in Washington and look who made the printing press which prints the Dollar you will find that it was made in Germany. Without German machines many economies would grind to a halt. With that much influence it is best not to be too self congratulating. It makes for enemies and the Germans have become pacifists.

jock Isenhardt, Toronto, Canada

Germany is in fact the world's number one exporter - $1.36 trillion in 2007. It has the world's third largest GDP - $3.3 trillion, behind Japan and the USA. It will probably slip to number four in GDP next year and be passed by China. However, remember these numbers are open to interpretation. Currency values fluctuate widely. Also, Purchase Power Parity, which measures the actual "dollar" costs of living in and doing business in a certain country, can be quite extreme.

Steve, Seattle, USA

The reason the German numbers are consistently high (in $$ terms) is because of the type of product they export: high end Industrial machinery, precision equipment, tools, etc as well as large numbers of transport machines, ranging from (very expensive) high speed trains to high end cars, as well as chemicals & raw steel (much in demand). They also export a lot of niche food products, especially to the US. It is difficult for competing countries to capture this market, and lots of other countries need/want the products. China is competing with low end, mass volume products on a huge scale. It may catch up within the next 5 yrs or so, but Germany will be in the top 2-3 for many more years.

F. McKane, Fremont, California, USA

Remember, these exports are based off value, and medical equipment techonology, machining technology, and advanced engineered products are Germany's specialty. In terms of tonnes, China certainly exports the most. In terms of finished goods, it would be the US. Germany leads the way in value of exports.

Chris, Scottsdale, USA/AZ

I expect the rankings are proportional to GDP, not absolute, hence Germany's unexpectedly high position.

Arturo Calzino, Elizabethtown, PA, USA

What about bratwurst and BEER????

scott, York, SC/USA

Germans make a lot of optical stuff and other high level niche products.

doug lominac, virginia beach, usa virginia

Gummy Bears are my favorite German Export. Long Live Haribo!

john, bridgewater, nj usa

Everything that most countries export are manufactured with imported German Machinery.

Nash, Sydney, Australia

I guess Germany imports stuff to it's friends in Iran? I don't recall seeing many German products other than cars.

Doug, Knoxville, USA/TN

Bizarre, how rarely do you see 'Made in Germany' on labels. Apart from some cars maybe and, who knows, Adidas, what does it export??????

Chris Jackson, London,