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MacroSnaps6 September 2026
No. 57

China has gone from 1% of the world's exports to about 15%, overtaking the United States along the way.

Share of world merchandise exports, 1980 to 2024. China (orange) rose from about 1% to 15% and passed the United States (slate) around 2007, as the US share slipped from roughly 12% to 8%.
China15(2024)United States9(2024)

Share of world merchandise exports, 1980 to 2024. China (orange) rose from about 1% to 15% and passed the United States (slate) around 2007, as the US share slipped from roughly 12% to 8%.

Why this is happening
  • Market reforms from 1978 turned a closed farm economy into the world's factory, with a vast pool of cheap labour and state-built ports, roads and power.
  • Joining the WTO in 2001 locked in low-tariff access to rich markets, and Western firms moved supply chains in to chase the lowest cost.
  • A managed, often cheap currency and heavy industrial subsidies kept Chinese goods underpriced for two decades.
The take

This is the fastest rise of a trading nation in history, and the engine of the "China shock" that hollowed out factory towns across the West. The plateau since 2020 hints the easy gains are over, not that the dominance is.

Source: WTO (2026)
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The underlying data

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