China’s US trade deal commitments more than 30 per cent short of year-to-date target, report says
- China’s total purchases of US goods in 2021, as of the end of May, reached only 69 per cent of the pledged total, according to Chinese import data
- Energy purchases reached just 34 per cent of China’s five-month target, based on US export data, but Chinese import data put that figure at 54 per cent
China was more than 30 per cent short of its 2021 commitments under the phase-one trade deal with the United States during the first five months of the year, according to new analysis of trade data between the world’s two largest economies.
But according to a report released by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) on Tuesday, China’s purchases of US goods from January to May reached only 69 per cent of the year-to-date target based on Chinese import data, and only 62 per cent of the target based on US export data.
According to the latest PIIE report, agriculture purchases under the phase-one trade deal reached 84 per cent of the 2021 commitment up until the end of May based on Chinese import data, and 86 per cent of the target based on US export data.
Purchases of covered manufactured goods reached 67 per cent of the five-month target based on Chinese import data, and 65 per cent of the target based on US export data.
Energy purchases, meanwhile, showed that China met 54 per cent of the target based on Chinese import data, but just 34 per cent of the target based on US export data.
“Through May 2021, China’s total imports of covered products from the United States were [valued at] US$56.9 billion, compared with a year-to-date target of US$82 billion,” the report said.
“Over the same period, US exports to China of covered products were [valued at] US$44.4 billion, compared with a year-to-date target of US$71.3 billion.”
After some nine months of silence, despite the phase-one trade deal calling for top-level contact every six months, China and the US held three rounds of trade talks in late May and early June.