China’s trade surplus declined by 8%, from $62.9 billion to $58 billion, from January-April 2008 compared year-over-year with 2007, the result of higher oil prices and other crude materials imports, yet the surplus for manufactures surged by 34%, according to a Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI analysis of Chinese trade data for the first four months of the year. China’s worldwide trade surplus in manufactured goods is on track to rise from $444 billion in 2007 to $586 billion in 2008.
 
Ernest H. Preeg, MAPI Senior Fellow in Trade and Productivity and author of India and China:  An Advanced Technology Race and How the U.S. Should Respond, also notes that the Chinese surplus was down by 2% with the U.S. but rose by 26% …