Tuesday, February 18, 2003
China beats Japan as exporter to US in 2002
Agence France-Presse Tokyo, February 18
China appears to have overtaken Japan as the third biggest exporter to the US in 2002 after Canada and Mexico as it dealt in fewer "politically sensitive products," a Japanese institute said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, China beat the United States into second spot as the top suppliers of merchandise to Japan last year, the state-financed Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) said in a report.
Trade between China and Japan increased 13.8 per cent to $101.5 billion in 2002, rewriting an annual record high for the fourth straight year, according to yen-based statistics converted by JETRO into dollars.
JETRO said China is believed to have surpassed Japan in annual exports to the US for the first time in 53 years since 1949 when it became communist. It based the projection on statistics for the first 11 months of last year provided by the US Department of Commerce (DOC) which is due to release full-year figures on Thursday.
In January-November, Japanese exports to the US amounted to $110.3 billion, compared with China's shipments worth $113.5 billion. Japan's share of US imports in the 11 months was 10.4 per cent, against 10.7 per cent for China. It noted that unlike Japan-US trade in the 1980s and early 1990s "Sino-US trade is not centered on politically sensitive products, such as automobiles, apparel and steel, or the highest levels of technology."
"While Japanese and Chinese exports are increasingly competing with each other in the US market, many of their products are still targeted at mutually unrelated sectors, with Japan focusing on relatively higher value-added products," the report added.
Japan's imports from China rose 6.1 per cent in 2002 to $61.7 billion, making the communist giant the world's top exporter to Japan for the first time, JETRO said.
On the other hand, Japan's imports from the US slumped 9.5 per cent to $57.5 billion.
Japan's exports to China jumped 28.2 per cent to $39.9 billion in 2002. China was the world's second biggest market for Japanese exports, following the US.
China's exports to the US market are led by consumer electronics, including telephones and radios, whose merchandise values do not rise much due to the values added in the process of manufacturing.
They also included toys, sporting goods and footwear.
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