China overtakes US in world trade
Combined total for imports and exports of Chinese goods hits
$3.87tn, edging past the United States for the first time
Phillip Inman, economics correspondent
China has become
the world's biggest trading nation in goods, ending ending the
post-war dominance of the United
States, according to official figures.
China's
customs administration said the combined total for imports and
exports in Chinese goods reached $3.87tn (£2.4tn) in 2012, edging
past the $3.82tn trade in goods registed by the US Commerce
Department.
The
landmark total for Chinese trade indicates the extent of Beijing's
dependence on the rest of the world to generate jobs and income
compared with a US economy that remains twice the size, and more
self contained. The US economy is worth $15tn compared with the
$7.3tn Chinese economy.
The US
not only has a large internal market for goods, but also dominates
the trade in services. US total trade amounted to $4.93tn in 2012,
according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) with a
surplus of $195.3bn.
But like
most western nations, the US deficit in the trade of goods weighs
heavily and is only expected to get larger.
The
deficit in goods was more than $700bn compared with China's 2012
trade surplus, measured in goods, which totalled $231.1bn.
Jim
O'Neill, head of asset management at Goldman Sachs, said the huge
market for western goods would disrupt regional trading blocs as
China becomes the most important commercial partner for some
countries. Germany may export twice as much to China by the end of
the decade as it does to France, he told Bloomberg.
"For so
many countries around the world, China is becoming rapidly the most
important bilateral trade partner," he said. "At this kind of pace
by the end of the decade many European countries will be doing more
individual trade with China than with bilateral partners in
Europe."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/11/china-worlds-largest-trading-nation
