Slowdown in trade with north America

Detailed figures on visible trade and service transactions are available only up to the third quarter of 1998.
NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement Between Canada, the USA and Mexico) entered into force on 1 January 1994.
The relative unit labour costs for manufacturing industry, as calculated by the OECD, are similar for the USA and Germany. Cf. OECD Economic Outlook, no. 64, December 1998, Paris, Appendix: Table 44.
It must be noted here, however, that Japan has imposed voluntary export restraints on itself because of its large trade surplus with the USA.
However, figures on international technical services must be interpreted with care. The magnitude of payments between associated companies is influenced by profit and taxation concerns.
Cf. Economic Trends 1999, Economic Bulletin, Vol. 35, No. 1, January 1999.
North America is traditionally the most important export market for the countries of Asia; no less than 30% of visible imports in the NAFTA countries come from Asia (including Japan and China). In 1997, Japan accounted for 11% of NAFTA imports, which corre-sponded roughly to the EU's share (excluding Germany). Germany's share amounted to around 4%.

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Herbert Lahmann
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Lahmann, H. Slowdown in trade with north America. Economic Bulletin 36, 21–28 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10160-999-0008-1

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