Maritime Trade and Transport - HWWI

The leading exporters and importers in world merchandise trade, 2004
Rank Exporting Country Value in Share Rank Importing Country Value in Share
US $ bn in (%) US $ bn in (%)
1 Germany 912.3 10.0 1 USA 1,525.5 16.1
2 USA 818.8 8.9 2 Germany 716.9 7.6
3 China 593.3 6.5 3 China 561.2 5.9
4 Japan 565.8 6.2 4 France 465.5 4.9
5 France 448.7 4.9 5 UK 463.5 4.9
6 Netherlands 358.2 3.9 6 Japan 454.5 4.8
7 Italy 349.2 3.8 7 Italy 351.0 3.7
8 UK 346.9 3.8 8 Netherlands 319.3 3.4
9 Canada 316.5 3.5 9 Belgium 285.5 3.0
10 Belgium 306.5 3.3 10 Canada 279.8 2.9
Fig. 2
Exporting countries 1‒10 5,016.1 54.8 Importing countries 1‒10 5,422.7 57.1
World exports 9,153.0 100.0 World imports 9,495.0 100.0
Since the 1980s, international trade patterns have become starkly polarized. Trade within
the “central” regions (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific) and the exchange of goods between
them have expanded much more than world merchandise trade as a whole. In 2004,
the three major regions jointly accounted for more than 85% of world trade (see Fig. 3). With
a share of 45.3%, Europe is the world’s largest exporter of goods, followed by Asia-Pacific with
26.8% and North America with 14.9%. The same order applies for imports. Here Europe
leads with a 44.4% share of world trade, again before Asia-Pacific (23.2%) and North America
(20.8%).
High growth rates were recorded especially in intraregional trade, i.e. trade between countries
that belong to certain regions. 2 In the 1950s, this figure only amounted to one third
of that of world trade, climbing to more than 40% by 1980 and subsequently to 57%. by
2004. At the same time, trade within the three leading regions alone amounted to 55.2% of
total world trade in 2004. The share of intra-European trade accounted for 33.4%, clearly ex -
ceeding the share of intraregional trade of the North American (8.3%) and the Asia-Pacific
(13.5%) economic areas. Trade within North America and the Asia-Pacific region, however,
has shown higher growth rates than intra-European trade for the past several years.
2 The composition of the regions is not always identical in the statistics. In WTO statistics, for example,
Mexico, as a participant in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), is considered part
of North America; in the UNCTAD statistics, however, it is part of Central America.
12 Berenberg Bank · HWWI: Strategy 2030 · No. 4
Source: WTO (2005b).