August 27, 2015
The NYT had an interesting map showing the extent to which countries trade with China as a way of illustrating its importance to the world economy. The main measure of the importance of trade with China is a circle showing the sum of imports and exports.
This is not really accurate, since the impact of a slowdown in China’s economy will be very different in its impact on imports and exports. If China’s economy’s slows sharply then the amount it imports from other countries will likely fall or at least grow considerably less rapidly than if its growth rate had been sustained.
On the other hand, there is no direct effect of slowing on China’s exports to its trading partners. There may be an indirect effect insofar as China’s slowing is associated with a lower value of its currency. In that case, its goods and services will become cheaper to its trading partners, which will likely lead to more rapid growth in Chinese imports by its trading partners. However this effect is likely to be considerably smaller than the impact on the exports of trading partners, which will fall due to both slower growth and changes in currency values.
It also would have been helpful if the numbers were expressed as shares of GDP. For example, Germany’s exports of $94 billion annually to China are far more important to its economy than the $153 billion exported by the United States, since the U.S. economy is more than four times as large as Germany’s.
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