For starters, given the eurozone s huge trade surplus, doing so would incur strong international resistance.

But the downward trend in the trade balance is clear.

As incomes in China grow, imports from other low or middle income countries rise faster than imports from high wage countries. China's trade surplus with the US exceeds 100 billion, but it runs a deficit with India.

China's trade surplus with the US exceeds 100 billion, but it runs a deficit with India.

Many emerging markets have run current account surpluses for the first time.

But what is that sustainable level of the trade balance and of the dollar?

The fall in the capital inflow would therefore bring with it a fall in the trade deficit.

Rebalancing also involves a global demand switch from external deficit countries to those running large current account surpluses. With lower spending and higher savings in the advanced economies, key emerging markets must take up the slack and start providing the demand needed to power the global recovery.

Rebalancing also involves a global demand switch from external deficit countries to those running large current account surpluses.

With the global economy recovering, China s trade surplus began to grow.

Americans accumulated their trade deficits by living far beyond their means.

That country has a trade surplus. It exports more than it imports.

So its trade surplus continues to soar at the expense of other countries.

This is the strongest decline in net foreign demand facing a single country, or, equivalently, the strongest increase in a country s net demand for foreign goods.

This makes the renminbi chronically undervalued and assures China of a persistent large trade surplus.

Japan s trade balance fell into deficit in 2011, for the first time since 1980.

Its launch has sharply weakened the yen and is now leading to rising trade surpluses.

Now, China is out competing everyone, racking up huge trade surpluses with the US.

Germany , Europe s largest exporter, has a very large trade surplus with the rest of the world.

They would run down their trade surpluses and, in some cases, allow their currencies to appreciate.

Australia has been a particularly large beneficiary of Chinese growth, which is relatively commodity intensive. This has tended to increase metals prices, fueling Australia s large export surplus in metals.

Manufacturing production has plummeted, the trade balance has deteriorated sharply, and corporate bankruptcies are increasingly frequent.

The arithmetic of global trade implies that the sum of all trade deficits equals the sum of all trade surpluses. If some countries, say, Japan and China, insist on running huge surpluses year after year, then other countries must run deficits.

Trade and immigration (legal and illegal), if left unchecked, will continue to exert downward pressure on rich countries labor markets.

The arithmetic of global trade implies that the sum of all trade deficits equals the sum of all trade surpluses.

China has yet to discover and adopt an alternative growth strategy that does not rely on a large trade surplus.

OPEC countries grew rich, while the rest of the developing world struggled with unsustainable trade deficits and indebtedness.

China s pursuit of a high saving, large trade surplus economy in recent years embodies mercantilist teachings.

Third, trade reforms can help smooth international macroeconomic fluctuations and contribute to an orderly resolution of global imbalances.

So China continues to run a giant trade surplus, and the US continues to spend and borrow.

Traditionally, nearly half of India s trade deficit has been financed by remittances from Indian expatriates.

Moreover, it is hard to see how anyone even the IMF, as the US proposal envisions could enforce caps on trade surpluses.

But some, particularly American politicians in this presidential election year, focus on only one thing China s trade balance.

China s purchases of American debt effectively transferred the official reserves gained via China s trade surplus back to the US market.

The eurozone is now running even larger ones, with swings in southern Europe augmenting Germany s longstanding surpluses.

The annual capital inflow is equal each year to the US current account deficit the sum of the trade deficit plus the net interest and dividends that America s government and businesses owe to the rest of the world. The fall in the capital inflow would therefore bring with it a fall in the trade deficit.

The annual capital inflow is equal each year to the US current account deficit the sum of the trade deficit plus the net interest and dividends that America s government and businesses owe to the rest of the world.

Over the past several years, much attention has focused on the role of China s trade surplus in creating today s global financial imbalances.

But the euro area as a whole nonetheless had a trade surplus of more than 30 billion over the past 12 months.

The recent downturn in France s industrial output has created large trade deficits, and is undermining the competitiveness of small and medium size enterprises.

In a normal world, the dollar s weakening would be welcome, as it would help the United States come to grips with its unsustainable trade deficit.

It is nice that Mexican workers and entrepreneurs are gaining experience in export manufactures, and successful enough to run a trade surplus vis à vis the US.

BEIJING China registered a monthly trade deficit of 7.2 billion in March 2010, its first since April 2004.

Moreover, national banking systems can now separate more easily, because the peripheral countries current accounts have already achieved a rough balance, with all but Greece expected to record a small external surplus in 2014.

The principal fear, at least in the circles in which I move, is of a sudden unwinding of global imbalances a rapid and destabilizing end to America s very large trade deficit and to Asia s very large trade surplus.