Who Are The Winners And Losers From China Trade

Source: China General Administration of Customs; calculations by Rhodium Group

Andrew Coflan, Foreign Policy: Mapping the World’s Winners and Losers from China Trade

In the past year, the U.S., Australia, and Brazil have all taken a hit.

The story of China’s trade over the past half-decade or more has stayed relatively consistent: countries exporting commodities to China have seen enormous inflows of money as the country has consumed huge quantities of raw materials, while developed countries in Europe and North America have run persistent and politically contentious deficits as they consume the output of China’s factories. Over the past year and a half, however, this story has changed significantly. Commodity prices have fallen sharply, and China’s economy is slowing from its double digit growth. Many economies around the world are reeling as a result.

China’s trading partners have seen once dependable surpluses wither away, or already existing deficits grow to frustrating levels. This presents a starkly different picture than during the heyday of China’s global growth — where GDP growth rates topped 10 percent per year, versus below seven percent today. The map below shows worldwide monthly average trade deficits and surpluses with China from January 2015 to July 2015. Red indicates a deficit; the deeper the red, the higher the monthly deficit. Click on any country for data:

WNU Editor: The U.S. is clearly the big loser.