Great Graphic: Rapidly Changing Trade Patterns

This Great Graphic was posted by Sam Ro on Business Insider, which he got from Goldman Sachs. It shows some of the world's fastest bilateral trade flows (which it calls trade routes and trade lanes) during the 2005-2012 period.  It is looking at the compounded annual growth rate of imports and exports measured in current US dollars.   

That China accounts for half of the 20-fastest growing trade relationships is not surprising, but in fairness, the chart notes that it is a "selection", suggesting the composer had a story it wanted to tell.  We would note that China's trade flows not only were a function of the country's rapid economic growth, but also the fact that it joined the WTO in late 2001.  

In some ways, though it was not the intent of the chart's creators, the trade flows not involving China are even more provocative.  These include Canada and the UK, the US and the Netherlands (is this a tax play?), Germany and Slovakia (autos?), Indonesia and Japan, Russia and South Korea, and Australia and the US.