A recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis finds that China and Mexico emerged from the recession of 2007-2009 with larger shares of U.S. trade while other major trading partners saw their shares decline, Sandler & Travis Trade Advisory Services, Inc., said today.  Among the report’s findings are the following (all numbers are approximate).

  • China’s share of total U.S. imports rose from just over 16 percent in 2007 to 18 percent in 2011, Mexico’s share grew from nearly 11 percent to 12 percent and Korea’s share edged up as well. Decreases were registered by Canada (16 percent to 14 percent, Japan (7.5 percent to 6.0 percent, Germany (5 percent to 4.5 percent) and the United Kingdom (3 percent to 2 percent).
  • On the export side, China’s share increased from 5.5 percent to 7 percent while Mexico’s share rose from 11.5 percent to 13.5 percent. These figures contrast with decreases for Canada (21.5 percent to 19 percent), Japan (5.5 percent to 4 percent), Germany (4.5 percent to 3.5 percent) and the United Kingdom (4.5 percent to 4 percent).
  • In 2011, nine countries (China, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Korea, France, and Taiwan) were among the top sources of imports and destinations for exports for the United States and trade with just 11 countries accounted for about two-thirds of the U.S. total.
  • Between 2007 and 2011, Korea overtook the United Kingdom as a source of U.S. imports and all but overtook Germany (and greatly closed the gap with the United Kingdom) as a destination for U.S. exports.

The recession was mostly a rich-country phenomenon and may therefore have accelerated somewhat the long-run growth of the relative importance of emerging markets such as China and Mexico in global and U.S. trade.