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Over the past fifteen years or so there has been a rapid and steady growth in Saudi Arabia's international trade activity. The rate and amount of growth has varied somewhat between Saudi Arabia and its trading partners. This paper presents a summary of the Saudi import-export trends from 1971 to 1984. It assesses Saudi Arabia's trade performance with its selected trading partners by employing an adaptation of the "Revealed Comparative Advantage" concept (RCA). Besides Saudi officials, the preliminary picture presented in this paper will be of interest to exporters to Saudi Arabia. Despite the fact that Saudi oil exports took a dip after 1981, the economy is still one of the strongest in the world. The RCA concept rests on the assumption that export-import ratios should reflect relative advantage, to the extent that comparative advantage determines the patterns of international trade flows. The higher the ratio of the value of exports over the value of imports, the higher the country's comparative advantage. Although the RCA concept has several limitations, it can be made more useful by examining export-import ratios for specific product categories using disaggregated trade data. The fact that the RCA method requires readily available foreign trade statistics makes it a convenient tool for estimating comparative advantages.

When purchasing a product the consumer is faced with the decision of choosing among alternatives which vary in extrinsic or intrinsic cues. Difficulties experienced by the consumer in assessing the levels of such cues lead to uncertainty. The uncertainty coupled with the possible consequences of a wrong choice produce risk. A widely acclaimed tenet of buyer behavior is that the consumer is influenced by the degree of risk he perceived regardless of such risk actually exists. The purpose of this study is to determine the level of risk Saudi Arabian consumers associate with made-in Germany label. A related objective is to explore if any evaluation factors lead to variations in risk perception toward German products. German products enjoy a strong reputation for quality, advanced technology and skilled workmanship among the Saudi consumers. This is evidenced by the popularity of, among others, such German products as Braun electric shavers, Telefunken TV sets and Rowenta kitchen equipment. Marketers of German products should use every occasion to provide the consumers with this potential risk reducer by concessionary price reductions.