For the first time in history, China's export in the second half of 2006 outnumbered USA's. Over the whole year the US were still in the lead, according to publications from the World Trade Organization
WTO. Chinese export went up 27 percent last year. As a result the Chinese will probably pass the United States this year. Germany will still be the biggest exporter in the world, however China will probably outnumber this country's export as early as next year (
ld, dutch). The world's relations will slowly re-establish. In the virtual economy which steadily develops it is all about people and less about raw materials or good local geographical circumstances. In the end (around 2050) the top 5 will be China, India, the USA, Indonesia and Brazil. The Netherlands will drop to the 59th position (in contrast to the current very comfortable sixth position). This news clearly points in that direction. Is it a bad prospect, or should the Netherlands fully focus on European collaboration?
Chinese economy has been going up about 10 percent a year for the last couple of years. Export is one of the main factors in this. The Chinese keep their monetary unit artificially low, which makes Chinese products attractive for export. WTO expects the growth of the world trade to be about 6 percent this year. That is less than last year’s 8 percent. Developing countries counted for more than one third of the world trade. According to WTO the growth of international trade will be lower this year because the world economy is slowing down.