Last year China became the country with the largest trade in the world, imports and exports combined, surpassing the United States which have dominated the global trade after the conclusion of World War II, according to Bloomberg.
U.S. exports and imports last year totaled $3,820 billion, the Commerce Department announced in Washington. Customs Administration of China reported in January that the country’s trade last year was $3,870 billion. China had a trade surplus of $231.1 billion and the U.S. reported a deficit of $727.9 billion.
The commercial rise of China is reflected in the growing influence of the largest Asian economy. This development threatens with a disruption of regional trading blocs, as China becomes the most important commercial partner of many countries including the U.S. and Germany. Europe’s largest economy will export twice more in China than in France, says Jim O’Neill, chairman of asset management division at Goldman Sachs.
Despite the trade figures, the U.S. economy is still more than two times larger than that of China, according to data of the World Bank in 2011. U.S. GDP in that year stood at $15,000 billion, while China’s GDP was $7,300 billion.
U.S. has become the largest trading power after World War II, a period during which they led the creation of a new financial architecture and global trade, as UK began to dismantle its colonial empire. China began to focus on trade and foreign investment after decades of isolation. Economic growth averaged 9.9% per year between 1978 and 2012.
The most populous country in the world has become the largest exporter in 2009, while the U.S. remains the largest importer, with $2,280 billion last year versus $1,820 billion for China.
China was last considered the largest economy in the world during the Qing Dynasty. The difference is, as Bloomberg notes, that in the eighteenth century, the Qing Empire – unlike the UK – did not focus on trade. Emperor Qianlong wrote to King George III in 1793: “We possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and I have no use for your country’s manufactures.”
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