European Tribune - Comments - Can the US/EU be Self-Sufficient?

By this I mean that it can produce everything it needs to survive using only its own resources. If you can't grow bananas then eat pears instead. What I'm really asking is are the advanced countries maintaining their standard of living by extracting more from trading partners than they are returning in trade? If they are then they are international brigands and trade is just a cover for this.

Ah, but it is a win-win situation for those countries whose minerals are extracted and whose rivers are polluted, because they get some of the shiny stuff they want in return (well, their corrupt leaders, anyway).

To answer this questions, there are statistics. For instance, eurostat tells me that the EU imports about 1.8 trillion kilos, and exports about 0.5 trillion.

In money terms, on the other hand, imports total € 1.4 trillion, exports €1.2 trillion.

But: why would the EU and US be the appropriate geographical units to organise self-sufficiency for, instead of Luxembourg and Rhode Island?