Source: WTO.

Share of World Goods Exports, Leading Exporters, 1950-2010

The first decade of the 21st century has seen a significant shift in the share of global trade of the leading exporters (United States, Japan, Germany and China more recently). The enduring trend involving the relative decline of American exports has accelerated to the point that Germany became the world's leading exporter in 2003, a role which was overtaken by China in 2009. Japan's share has been declining for about 25 years as it became an expensive location for manufacturing.. There is thus a convergence and an enduring stability of the share of the world's four leading exporters, hovering in the 30% of total exports range. However, it must be considered that many American, Japanese and Korean corporations have relocated in China some of their production facilities, so a share of Chinese exports are embedded within supply chains essentially controlled by foreign interests.

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