Industry News

Data show that in the past 10 years, as an important export market, China's importance to almost all major trading partners has increased significantly. For Japan, the European Union, South Korea, Australia and India, China's importance has doubled or more than tripled. For Germany, although exports to China accounted for only 6% of its total exports in 2012, slightly higher than Italy's 5%, this share has changed significantly in the past 10 years. Ten years ago, exports to China accounted for only 2.2 percent of Germany's total exports, compared to 7.3 percent for Italy. In other words, demand from China contributed about 9 percent to Germany's overall export growth over the past 10 years, while demand from Italy contributed negatively.

But just how important is China? How much of these countries' exports to China is consumed by China itself rather than re-exported to the rest of the world? After all, more than 40% of China's exports belong to processing trade exports, of which imported materials account for a large proportion. Estimates show that a large part of many Asian economies’ exports to China are intermediate products or processed products, which will eventually be exported by China instead of meeting their own final needs. economy is most prominent.

However, China's final demand does matter for most Asian economies, including Japan. Recently, the OECD and the World Trade Organization jointly established the "Statistical System of Trade Value Added", which sums up the value added of one economy's direct or indirect exports to another economy, and deducts the part used for re-export and included in the export. The added value of imports in , so as to measure the "real" trade chain relationship. According to estimates, China's own demand is still the most important source of demand in the added value of exports from Australia, Taiwan, and South Korea, accounting for about 14% of Japan's total exports in 2009.

From China's perspective, the top five sources of imports are the European Union, Japan, South Korea, the United States and Taiwan. From the perspective of added value, among China's imports for its own final consumption, the European Union is the largest importer, and the United States surpasses Japan and South Korea to rank second. Measured against China's own consumption, imports from Taiwan are less important than Australia.