Contracts

Hi,

I'm very new to GPS and wondered if someone could give me the heads up on contracts. I understand there are two types purchase and sale but don't fully understand the concept.

For example if someone approaches me with a new contract asking to purchase say apples, am I purchasing from them or are they purchasing from me.

Maybe I'm being stupid but at least I'm prepared to acknowledge it.

As far as i know it must be that they are buying, but im not 100% sure becouse i only sell to them never buy from them

This is the part of the game I really struggle with. Creating contracts doesn't seem to make allot of sense.

Ie Im playing the Uk. Turkey offered me a sales contract for Cement I accepted as there was demand in my economy this had a dramatic effect on Growth Unemployment and Budget Excess at the time all in positive ways.

So I was WOW these contracts are hugely important so I started to go through my industries looking for sectors that needed more supply.

Found quite a few but getting a contract with another country seems impossible sometimes.

Again for example my economy had a thirst for cement so I talked to India China Australia Brazil Turkey again all countries with available volume offered them huge contracts IE pushing the price to max they never accepted even though the contract was worth billions to the other country.

OMG this is frustrating as The UK looks good Popularity at 100% 11 years in power No budget deficit(actually 5 billion which never goes even though Ive had 5 years of excess) 0.1 unemployment. My problem is growth which is about 0.6 and my world share of GDP is falling I need more growth and think contracts are the Key.

Well I have waffled enough hope someone can give me some pointers n contracts look forward to hearing from U:)

I am having trouble with creating profitable sales contracts with other countries. I am playing as the U.S. and whenever I try to sell a good or service to another country in need of that good or service there is a trade defecit. I am also trying to get my country to become independent on oil. I have attempted to ramp up production but every part of the gulf says that it is a "low" production area. The game says that I am importing oil however I cannot find the contract for the import so I am not sure on how much production I need to become energy independent.

I also want to put a tarrif (spelling?) on imported goods from china but cannot find that option. I believe this would help my country to produce it's own goods. So I am having difficulties applying my ideas in the game. They are not possible to do or not optional.

Are there any suggestions on how to export to other countries at a profit? I even went as far as publishing some of my countries technology in order to sell it to other countries.

Also, when I cut my budget just enough to get the spending out of the red I was faced with countrywide protests which threw me out of office. I suppose this aspect is realistic. When it comes to cutting the budged you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.