West Germany outdistanced the United States as the world's biggest exporter for the second year in a row, according to the International Monetary Fund. West German exports amounted to $294 billion, compared with $250 billion for the United States and $231 billion for Japan in 1987, the IMF said. West German exports, which first jumped ahead of U.S. exports in 1986, also ran ahead of U.S. exports for the first two months of 1988: $46.7 billion for West Germany compared with $45.9 billion for the United States. U.S. imports in 1987 were $424 billion, compared with $228 billion for West Germany, $158 billion for France, $154 billion for Britain and $151 billion for Japan. The IMF figures, in an IMF publication released Friday, show total trade increased 10 percent in 1986 and 18 percent in 1987. The fund reported that trade among the biggest countries remained far out of balance in 1986 and 1987. The United States imported much more than it exported, while the reverse was true for Japan and West Germany. The IMF said U.S. sales grew by 15.2 percent and purchases by 9.6 percent in 1987 over the year earlier, while Japan's exports rose up 9.3 percent and imports were up 18.2 percent and Germany's imports and exports each grew by about 20 percent. Both Japan and West Germany have been undr international pressure, especially from the United States, to increase their imports and curb their exports. Last year's total trade marked a return to the annual average of the 1970s, the publication noted. The IMF said trade within the European Economic Community increased ``at substantially higher rates in 1986 and 1987 than overall trade within industrial countries.'' ``The trade of developing countries also grew substantially, reversing the stagnation of the previous three years,'' it added. The fund includes among ``developing countries'' its other 131 members, many of them poorer lands where incomes have declined, like much of Africa and Latin America, as well as more prosperous countries where conditions are improving, such as South Korea and Singapore.
