North America’s share of global output has fallen much less than that of Europe or Latin America over the past 20 years, undermining US President Donald Trump’s claims that unfair trade deals have been detrimental to American workers in particular.
Since 1997, North America’s share of global output has fallen from 28.5 per cent of the total to a forecast 24.1 per cent this year, a decline of 15 per cent, according to data from Euromonitor, a research group.
But western Europe’s share has slumped 31 per cent over the same period, with its share set to fall below 20 per cent for the first time in 2017, compared with 29.1 per cent in 1997. Latin America has fared almost as badly, with its share slumping by more than a quarter to 5.1 per cent.