Source: WTO.

Share of World Goods Exports, Leading Exporters, 1950-2007

The first decade of the 21st century have 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 with China climbing to the second rank in 2007. Japan's share has been declining for about 15 years and was overtaken in 2004 by China. However, it must be considered that many Japanese (and Korean) corporations have relocated in China parts of their production facilities, so some Chinese exports are embedded within Japanese supply chains. 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.