Over the last decade, Asia has developed into a major manufacturing base for the developed world. This relationship has provided mutual benefits: the West has received cheap goods while the East has developed its production capacity more quickly. China, to a significant extent, has been the assembler nation, importing raw materials and intermediate products from the rest of Asia and exporting finished products to the West. This relationship is illustrated in the chart above, which plots China’s imports from Asia and its exports to the U.S. and Europe since January 2000. Recently, however, this relationship has weakened slightly — China is providing more demand for Asian exports than the West is providing for Chinese exports. An important question is whether the strong Asian recovery can continue without a robust recovery in Western demand for Chinese goods. Read more »

The U.S. federal deficit has increased significantly since the start of the recession, as tax revenues have fallen and spending has increased. But the trade deficit has actually shrunk, reaching its lowest level for ten years in May. So while the risks associated with dependence on external financing have declined, there are new risks stemming from increased fiscal borrowing. Read more »

The early 1990s witnessed trade tensions between the United States and Japan, even though the U.S. current account deficit stood at about 1% of GDP and Japan is a democracy.  As our chart shows, the world is now trying to manage much larger imbalances, and two of the major surplus countries are not democracies.  Resolving these imbalances may be more difficult because of the dependence on exports in China and Germany, the two leading surplus economies. Read more »

The collapse in U.S. trade associated with the current downturn far exceeds the fall in any other post-war recession. It tracks the fall in trade observed in the 1930s, though there are now signs of stabilization. So far this collapse has been driven by economic factors, such as the decline in demand and trade financing, but as the world economy contracts the risk of protectionism increases. Read more »

World trade has contracted sharply as global demand has collapsed. U.S., European, and Chinese demand for world goods dried up in the last quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009. But optimism is growing that recession may be nearing a bottom. Will there be signs of “green shoots” in trade as well? Read more »