What countries can survive without trade with foreigners?

I don’t think any can.

None that I can think of, we’re all in the boat called Earth !

Even North Korea, the most walled off nation on earth, can’t survive without trade with China.

Trade is a good thing.

Several countries can if not more. They would have to figure out a way to survive if for some reason theoretically, they become totally isolated. Their way of life will drastically change. Less population if they can’t produce their own vaccines and produce food and energy. Adapt or die.

Theoretically every country can. They did it before, they can do it now. It may be a move backwards, but it is theoretically possible.

There are tribes in Africa and South America that live off the land. They don’t need foreign trade, even if the rest of their countries fall apart.

I think the US’s only big weakness is medication in my opinion. If we had lead time and could start producing medications that we don’t produce now, we would be ok.

We also would have some problems with producing parts for some technology pieces, but we could survive and do pretty well. We are a huge country with varying climates.

I think a lot of countries could survive, but there would be hardships. Food and textiles for warmth are obviously the most important. Needing enough for current populations.

Theoretically every country can. They did it before

When? Google and Bing like to show me archeology stories because I click on them, and I am continually amazed at the finds of foreign goods in ancient sites.

One example: The Dunhuang manuscripts are a trove of writings found in a Chinese cave. They were sealed up 1,000 years ago. They included Jewish prayers written in Hebrew.

I suppose the Polynesians lived apart (after their ancestors sailed thousands of miles around the Pacific), but I can’t think of a place with cities which was isolated.

The Silk Road was famous for being the one place foreigners could travel without fear, because nobody wanted trade to suffer.

Let’s be clear, ANY country CAN put up protectionist barriers and create a perfectly internal economy. But the consequences are that you’ll be poor very very quickly. You won’t get the resources you need, the capital you need, the price of every product will skyrocket, and you won’t be able to hit economies of scale on alot of things or leverage the Comparative Advantage that other countries have in various goods.

Every advanced and prosperous nation/empire in history has traded. Trade is good. Econometric studies show that even in the case of a rich/high skill nation trading with a poor/low skill nation, BOTH sides end up with more jobs and better paying jobs on net. The media hides this because it focusses on the factory closure and tells you it’s ‘because trade’, but in reality, it’s because that factory wasn’t the most efficient use of the economic resources it consumed. The media doesn’t highlight the high skill service jobs that are created and more than offset the losses at the factory.