Abstract Deindustrialization in the sense of a decline in the share of industry in GDP, generally observed in developed countries, is explained by the three‐sector model. While this model shows a ‘normal’ level of deindustrialization, this study proposes to use unbalanced trade to assess the existence of undue deindustrialization in 21 major developed countries and empirically confirms its existence. At finer sectoral levels, by grouping these countries into Europ16 and Pacific5, the direct and indirect impacts of trade on these countries over the period 1991–2018 are assessed. The results suggest that Pacific5 was more affected than Europ16 and that China exerted stronger trade effects in causing this undue decline than nine other emerging Asian countries combined.