How much is China exporting?
In 2004, China accounted for about a quarter of America’s $617 trade deficit. But with the rest of the world, China actually ran a smallish deficit of $47bn. This year, that has changed: in the first two months of the year, China ran an overall trade surplus with the world of $10.9bn, compared with a $7.9bn deficit the previous year. Toys, clothing, furniture and TVs from China have dominated the shelves of US retailers for years. But now they are being shipped in growing quantities to everywhere from Britain (up 42% in the same period) and Germany (44%) to Spain and Indonesia (both 75%).
