WTO: China Overtakes U.S. in Exports

[Jerry]

Thursday, April 12, 2007

GENEVA — China surpassed the United States as the world's second-largest exporter in the middle of last year, according to figures released Thursday by the World Trade Organization, and the Asian country is pulling further and further ahead.

Export growth from China boomed 27 percent last year, outpacing all other major trading nations, the WTO said in releasing its first batch of global trade statistics for 2006.

While China finished behind Germany and the United States in total exports for the full year, it overtook the United States in the last six months of 2006 and will almost certainly finish above the U.S. in the 2007 totals.

At current growth rates, China is projected to overtake Germany as the world's biggest exporter in 2008.

"China's merchandise trade expansion remained outstandingly strong," the WTO said in its 21-page report. "Office and telecom equipment continued to be the mainstay of Chinese export growth, but significant gains in world market shares in 2006 could be observed in 'traditional' exports such as clothing and 'new' products such as iron and steel."

The WTO report comes at a time of rising tension between China and the United States and some of the findings will surely fuel debate that Beijing's trade policies are preventing American goods from entering its vast market. U.S. critics accuse the Chinese economy of benefiting from an undervalued currency, illegal government subsidies, unfair barriers to foreign competition and widespread piracy.

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Link.

Given China's growing economy and the US becoming more and more bogged down in the Middle East, what is your forecast for the future?

 

[Sergeant Stinger1]

Bush is bringing everything that we had down to an all time low.
BTW: Besides Bush we can blame all the Wally World shoppers and any American that buys "made in China" without looking into what is "Made in America!" for this too.

 

[Spartacus FPV]

Everything changes, we can't stay in 1st place forever. Didn't the London stock exchange surpass ours as well?

At least we're still #1 in debt! Don't worry, our education system will save us, pass the buck to the next generation, they took mah job!@ :roll:

 

[PeteEU]

Everything changes, we can't stay in 1st place forever. Didn't the London stock exchange surpass ours as well?

At least we're still #1 in debt! Don't worry, our education system will save us, pass the buck to the next generation, they took mah job!@ :roll:

The US has not been world nr 1 exporter for decades I belive. And yes the value on the European markets (Russia and Turkey included) combined surpassed the US stockmarkets value last week.

 

[Kandahar]

Given China's growing economy and the US becoming more and more bogged down in the Middle East, what is your forecast for the future?

China will continue to grow rapidly. The US will continue to grow at a reasonable pace. The fact that we're currently bogged down in the Middle East will just be a blip in the history books. I don't anticipate that continuing for more than a couple years, because in 2009 we'll have a president who isn't an ideologue.

I doubt that China's economy will surpass the US anytime soon though. Its economic growth will slow long before that happens, because it's population is getting older. Also, China still has a MAJOR long-term disadvantage for its economy: its censorship of useful information.

I invest 1/3 of my money in American index funds, 1/3 in Chinese index funds, and 1/3 in Indian index funds. I feel most comfortable with India for the long term.

 

[Kushinator]

What you are witnessing firsthand is the gradual change in wealth systems.

The United States, for a long period of time, was the global leader in manufacturing. Also known as mass production, this type of wealth system was created in Europe during the 18th century.

The manufacturing wealth system overtook agriculture as our economic juggernaut. We soon overtook europe just as a new system of wealth, and an older yet only now applicable wealth system began to set it roots.

We know these two as the service based economy, and the knowledge based economy. A service economy (getting house painted, auto repair, dog grooming etc...) can only exist with a population that has the capital to utilize it. I mean, when have you seen the majority of poor countries populations getting new pools, or plastic surgery?

As the Vietnam war ended, gas prices sky rockted, and the Cold War dwindled, new businesses such as Microsoft, Apple, and Intel became rags to riches stories within a span of a decade. New technologies coupled with super ambitious idea men now make way for what Alvin Toffler calls,the "Third Wave" of wealth, or Knowledge based wealth system.

Right now, bio tech companies, specialized manufactures, and a whole cluster of industries that exist only in ones mind (online games, this hear forum, myspace etc...) are creating revenue, without taking up any space minus a server or 1000.

The only scary thing is that China has no government restrictions in the genetic engineering industry. Which means they have a huge advantage from a research and development standpoint.

I could go on for hours, but Toronto is loosing to New York.