Gabon - Foreign trade

Gabon has a record of trade surpluses. Until the late 1960s, timber was Gabon's main export. By 1969, however, crude petroleum had become the leader, accounting for 34% of total exports. Petroleum's share increased to 40.7% in 1972 and to 81.9% in 1974; it stood at 82.5% in 1985 and hovered around 80% until 1999.

Gabon's most lucrative export commodity is crude petroleum (79%). Wood accounts for a substantial amount of export revenues (14%), as does manganese (5.0%). Most of Gabon's oil goes to the US.

In 1996 Gabon's imports were distributed among the following categories:

Consumer goods	13.5%
Food	18.2%
Fuels	3.4%
Industrial supplies	21.8%
Machinery	28.6%
Transportation	14.1%
Other	0.3%

Principal trading partners in 1998 (in millions of US dollars) were as follows:

COUNTRY	EXPORTS	IMPORTS	BALANCE
United States	1,256	69	1,187
France	294	457	-163
China (inc. Hong Kong)	165	30	135
Spain	65	32	33
Japan	43	38	5
Italy	35	46	-11
Netherlands	16	53	-37
United Kingdom	8	39	-31
Cameroon	2	62	-60
Côte d'Ivoire	n.a.	82	n.a.