North-south trade cargo analysis

摘要

Most economic reports continue to indicate that world trade cargo growth is slowing due to deteriorating market conditions. The main cause of concern is the growing US balance of payments deficit, which many believe is not sustainable in the long run. Continuing to sell the family silver and borrow money is not felt to be a long-term solution for the US. But, as mentioned in previous analyses, trade growth still remains positive. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) latest statistics, merchandise trade exports from the G7 countries of Canada, the US, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and the UK actually declined by 0.3% in Q3 2004, compared with the previous quarter -partly due to a particularly poor performance from Germany. However, compared with the same quarter in 2003, export growth was still up 8.1 %. On the import side, the corresponding figures were 1.8% and 8.2% respectively.