Mechanical Engineering Clusters in International Division of Labor

The article considers the proportions of mutual deliveries of goods in the triangle USA – Western Europe – East Asia in the recent decade. It is shown that the USA remained to be a net importer of industrial products while West European and East Asian countries were the net providers. The US deficit in goods’ trade with China and Germany exceeded the pre-crisis level. Still, the integral trade deficit of the USA remained lower than before the crisis, in particular because of lesser deficit in trade with oil producing countries and Japan. Reduction of China’s and Eurozone countries’ surplus in comparison to 2007-2008 can be explained by the dynamics of their trade with third countries (in particular, with the suppliers of energy resources which the prices turned back to high levels in post-crisis period). The same relate to a lesser extent to Japan which the surplus in trade with the USA did not reach the pre-crisis level. The author concludes that even during crisis and post-crisis periods the changes in balance of payments of the leading suppliers of mechanical engineering goods were mostly determined by their trade with the suppliers of raw materials rather than by the mutual trade.