The Japan External Trade Organization said Thursday that global trade in products related to information technology, which has supported growth in world trade since 1999, has been slowing rapidly since the beginning of this year.
In an annual report on trade, the semigovernmental organization said that while international specialization in the assembly and production of IT-related parts has developed, the burst of the so-called IT bubble in the United States has hit exports from and imports to Asia and other regions, underlining the worldwide slump in IT.
Global exports of IT-related goods in 2000 expanded 19.7 percent from the previous year to $1.172 trillion, boosting overall global trade by 12.3 percent to $6.273 trillion, according to the report.