The difference between a country's imports and exports of goods in a particular year is

International trade produces several related statistics, and it is important to know exactly what each one measures. One of the simplest is a comparison of only the physical goods a country sends abroad against the physical goods it brings in, over a given year.

The difference between the value of a country's visible exports and its visible imports of goods in a year is called the balance of trade. If exports exceed imports, the country has a favourable or surplus balance of trade; if imports exceed exports, the balance of trade is unfavourable or in deficit.

The balance of payments is a broader record that includes trade in services, investment flows, and other financial transactions, not just goods, so it covers more than the question asks about. Terms of trade compares the prices of exports against the prices of imports rather than their total value, and terms of payment refers to how and when payment is made in a transaction, not a national trade statistic.

When a question restricts itself to "goods" only, in a single year, it is pointing you to the balance of trade rather than the wider balance of payments.