While relations between the United States and China have yet to thaw after years of growing tension, bilateral trade ties are expanding, with the value of imports and exports hitting a new high last year. China was the U.S.’ third-largest trading partner for goods in 2022, accounting for 13% of total trade, following Canada, with 14.9%, and Mexico at 14.7%, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. “The increase shows that economic forces are stronger than political talk,” Gary Hufbauer, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC, told China Daily. “The U.S. economy is very strong, and U.S. firms need to get intermediate and final goods from reliable suppliers that offer high quality and low prices. That means China,” he said. The value of U.S. goods exports to China increased by USD2.4 billion year-on-year to a record high of USD153.8 billion, with imports increasing USD31.8 billion to reach USD536.8 billion last year, the U.S. data showed.
Two-way trade in goods between the world’s two largest economies rose to USD690.6 billion last year, exceeding the record set in 2018. Compared with 2012, U.S. exports of goods to China increased 39%, while its imports from China grew 26.6%, according to the U.S. data. According to China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC), Sino-U.S. trade rose 0.6% year-on-year to USD759.43 billion in 2022, with the U.S. remaining China’s third-largest trading partner following the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union.
Chinese exports to the US grew 1.2% year-on-year to USD581.78 billion last year, while its imports from the U.S. fell 1.1% to USD177.64 billion, GAC said. Despite the countries’ differing statistics, the figures show that the booming trade relationship between the two major economies is mutually beneficial, creating jobs in both countries and taming rising inflation in the U.S., said Yang Weiyong, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. Hufbauer, however, said that if geopolitical tensions worsen substantially, there could be a plunge in bilateral trade. Current trade relations suggest that the decisions of consumers and business executives have been more powerful than those of policymakers, he added.
In his State of the Union address, U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington seeks competition, not conflict, with Beijing, and the U.S. will work with China in areas where interests align. In late November, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the country reaps great benefits from trade with China and would not decouple from it, with the exception of critical technology and other areas that Washington deems could “undermine” its national security. Beijing made it clear that it opposes stretching the concept of national security and politicizing or weaponizing economic and trade ties, the China Daily reports.
