What are the top exports traded between China and Japan, and which country has the greatest competitive advantages for each of these product categories?
China exported an estimated US$1.204 trillion worth of goods to customers around the globe in 2009. That figure represents a 16.1% slowdown from $1.435 trillion during the prior year.
Japan shipped $542.3 billion worth of products in 2009, down 27.4% from $746.5 billion in 2008.
Chinese exports are valued at over twice those from the Land of the Rising Sun. Also, Japan is China’s third-largest export customer after the United States and Hong Kong while China is Japan’s number one export consumer.
China’s Competitive Trade Advantages over Japan
Totalling the above 10 export product categories, China shipped $8.3 billion more worth of merchandise to Japan during 2009 than was imported from Japanese producers.
Overall, Chinese exports to Japan are about 9.6 times higher than comparable Japanese exports to China.
The list below is sorted by exports for which China has the strongest competitive advantage versus Japanese imports for the same product category.
- Laptop and notebook computers … US$3 billion more Chinese exports than Japanese
- Flat panel color television screens … $1.2 billion
- Computer parts and accessories … $1.1 billion
- Cell phones … $1.08 billion
- Printers, copiers and fax machines … $751.5 million
- Toys … $365.3 million
- Computer monitors … $337 million
- Voice, image and data machines … $166.9 million
- Digital computer processing units … $80.4 million.
At the product level, China has established significant surpluses in technology products from computes to cell phones.
For its part, Japan has to increase its competitiveness in technical products beyond its current strengths in telecommunications devices including voice, image and data machines.