Share of Chinese exports to the U.S. falls 4 years in a row

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Share of Chinese exports to the U.S. falls 4 years in a row

10 marzo, 2025

English

The share of Chinese exports to the United States accumulated four years of year-on-year declines in 2024.

As a result, China‘s share of total foreign purchases of products in the U.S. market fell to 13.4%, according to data from the Department of Commerce.

Another way of looking at the sequence: that share represents the lowest in the last two decades.

What year was the peak? In 2017, the year before the start of Donald Trump’s second presidential term: it rose to 21.6 percent.

Chinese exports

In 2024, China exported $438.947 billion worth of goods to the United States and, conversely, its imports from that country were $143.546 billion.

Consequently, China obtained a surplus of US$295,402 million.

The trend of Chinese exports to the U.S. market, as a proportion of total imports to the U.S., is presented below:

2014: 20.0.
2015: 21.6.
2016: 21.1.
2017: 21.6.
2018: 21.2.
2019: 18.0.
2020: 18.5.
2021: 17.8.
2022: 16.5.
2023: 13.9
2024: 13.4.

Tariffs

The Reserve Bank of Australia noted that tariff barriers for Chinese exports have increased in several countries in recent years.

In 2018, the United States imposed new tariffs on many Chinese imports. It did so in response to trade practices that it claimed gave China an unfair advantage. Among them, it cited intellectual property rights violations and currency manipulation.

More recently, the United States, Europe, Canada and other countries have denounced unfair competition from China. They argue that China over-supports its manufacturing sector. To counteract this, they have applied more tariffs and seek to protect their domestic industries.

So far, the new tariffs have focused on the so-called “new three”: solar panels, electric vehicles and batteries. However, they also affect exports of traditional sectors such as steel. In this case, Chinese domestic demand has fallen due to the persistent weakness of its real estate sector.

In addition, since 2022, the United States has restricted exports of sensitive equipment to manufacture semiconductors in China.

Trump has signed, in his second term, executive orders adding an additional 20% tariff on products imported from China.