Steep Increase in US-China Trade Despite Poor Political Relations

Poor bilateral relations between China and the United States does not seem to affect trade between the two countries. In the first half of the year, trade between China and the US grew by 45.7 percent year-on-year and reached $340.8 billion, according to the General Administration of Customs of China announcement on Tuesday, as reported by TASS. Chinese exports to the United States in January-June increased by 42.6% to $252.86 billion, while imports of US products rose 55.5% to $87.94 billion. In June, trade between the two countries amounted to nearly $61.254 billion, while China’s surplus in trade with the United States in the first half of the year amounted to $164.92 billion, up 36.2% over that of the first half of 2020. For the year 2020, bilateral trade volume increased by 8.3% to $586.72 billion, with a surplus rising by 7% to $316.9 billion for China.