what are examples of nations with an absolute advantage 
a clear example of a nation with an absolute advantage is saudi arabia a country with abundant oil supplies that provide it with an absolute advantage over other nations 7other examples include colombia and its climate ideally suited to growing coffee and zambia possessing some of the world s richest copper mines 89 for saudi arabia to try and grow coffee and colombia to drill for oil would be an extremely costly and likely unproductive undertaking the bottom linethe theory of absolute advantage represents adam smith s explanation of why countries benefit from trade by exporting goods where they have an absolute advantage and importing other goods while the theory is an elegant and simple illustration of the benefits of trade it did not fully explain the benefits of international trade that would later fall to david ricardo s theory of comparative advantages 14