Great walls: a closer look
at China-US trade
President Trump’s trip to Asia at the beginning of the month
dominated the news. Apart from his desire to address tensions on the Korean
peninsula, the trip was also intended to address the trade imbalance between
Asia and the US, particularly focused on China. Yet it is possible to argue
that Chinese exports to the US are a function of the globalisation of US
electronics companies. The chart shows the top five Chinese export sectors to
the US in 2016 and projected for 2017. The first two, electrical machinery and
equipment and components and machinery include mobile phones, washing machines,
semiconductors and computers. Clearly, they inherently contain intellectual
property which is a key focus for the discussions between the two leaders.
These sectors also dwarf trade between the two countries in other sectors which
actually might reflect more closely a pattern of trade between an emerging
economy and a developed one: furniture, toys and clothing. Top US exports to
China include the catch-all “Commodities Not Elsewhere Specified” which proxies
well for oil and arms trade, and aerospace. Most of the top export sectors from
the US to China show slight declines between 2016 and 2017 except aerospace.
Value of China’s top five export and import sectors with the US (US$
bn), 2016 & 2017
Equant Analytics 2017
To read more, click here
No comments:
Post a Comment