China has unseated the United States, and is now No. 1 when it comes to trade and the total sum of exports and imports, according to U.S. Commerce Department statistics.
Last year, the United States’ exports and imports totaled $3.92 trillion. China’s, meanwhile, was $3.87 trillion, Newsmax reported.
China’s rising economic influence has not gone unnoticed by other nations. Germany, for instance, is predicted to export twice as much to the nation in the coming decade as it will to France, Newsmax reports.
“For so many countries around the world, China is becoming rapidly the most important bilateral trade partner,” said one Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst.
Adding to the significance of the trade numbers: The United States has an economy that’s twice the size of China’s, Newsmax reports. U.S. gross domestic product in 2011 was $15 trillion; China’s, that same year, was $7.3 trillion, according to World Bank figures.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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