The United States decreased its trade deficit with China in April, at a monthly rate of 6.7%, according to data from the Census Bureau.

In the interior, exports to China decreased at a monthly rate of 6.24%, while imports from China decreased 6.56 percent.

An analysis by Banco Base states that in the Phase One agreement a goal of 193,000 million dollars (in exports from the United States to China) was set for 2021.

In the fourth month of the year, there was an advance of 34.5 billion dollars (of the products included in the Phase One agreement), equivalent to 60% of the goal set for this period of 34.5 billion.

With the entire world, the United States had a trade deficit of 68.9 billion dollars, showing a monthly contraction of 8.17%, the first monthly decline since December and the largest since February 2020.

In its annual comparison, the trade deficit of the United States shows an increase of 30.1%, as fiscal and monetary stimuli boosted the growth of demand in the United States, recovering at a faster rate than the rest of the world.

In the interior, exports from the United States advanced at a monthly rate of 1.15% during April, while imports decreased 1.37 percent.

Trade deficit

In April, global demand was boosted by progress in vaccination campaigns, which allowed the lifting of restrictions in some businesses, especially in the services sector.

Progress in Phase One commercial agreement (in billions of dollars)

However, due to higher demand, bottlenecks are being observed in supply chains, as there are shortages of certain inputs, which limits trade.

Additionally, the foregoing has caused a general increase in the prices of raw materials.

From Banco Base’s perspective, specifically in the automotive and electronics industry, the risk associated with the global shortage of semiconductors continues, which has affected the supply chains of these sectors.