China’s trade growth slowed for the first time in three months in July, with export growth of 7% lagging economists’ expectations for an 11% expansion. That was something of a surprise given recent upbeat manager sentiment surveys. Growth remains well above the past 12 months’ average, however. Exports to the ASEAN region are improving, while those to Japan have now fallen continually since February 2016. The trade surplus with the U.S. – arguably the most important trade statistic globally right now – increased 3% on a year earlier to $25.3 billion. By comparison the “res...