Balances of Trade Since 1980

Whilst perusing the interwebs on HPI-related matters, I came across this Wikipedia map of cumulative current account balances from 1980 to 2008, based on IMF data:



This map indicates, more or less, the trade surplus or deficit for countries since 1980, in billions of dollars.

According to this, the top five net exporters since 1980 have been

1. Japan: 2,747.943 billion dollars US
2. China: 1,521.887
3. Germany: 1,047.328
4. Russia: 613.978
5. Switzerland: 596.977

The top five net importers have been

1. United States: -7,335.869
2. Spain: -773.443
3. United Kingdom: -695.155
4. Australia: -529.031
5. Mexico: -263.667

For 2007, the top twenty country net exporters included 6 European countries, 6 East Asian countries, and 8 members of OPEC. The top 16 net importers included 11 European countries (including Turkey) and 6 countries with a history of British colonization. But note that Ireland gets counted twice.