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US-China trade war: bilateral trade stable despite coronavirus, tariffs and Beijing-Washington tensions
- Monthly two-way trade, which tumbled to US$19 billion in February 2020 amid shutdowns in Chinese factories, has rebounded over the past year to record levels
- China and the United States signed a phase-one trade deal in January 2020, although Beijing is missing its purchase targets
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China and the United States are shipping goods to each other at the briskest pace in years, making the world’s largest bilateral trade relationship look as if the protracted tariff war and coronavirus pandemic never happened.
Eighteen months after the Trump administration signed the phase-one trade deal, the agreement has turned out to be a truce at best. The US trade deficit has not shrunk, most levies are still in place, and it has not led to negotiations over other economic issues.
And yet, bilateral trade in goods is an area of stability in a relationship that has otherwise continued to deteriorate, with rising tension over Hong Kong, Taiwan, human rights, the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, accusations of computer hacking and many other flashpoints.
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Monthly two-way trade, which tumbled to US$19 billion in February 2020 amid shutdowns in Chinese factories, rebounded over the past year to record levels, according to official Chinese data.
We’ve seen the strong consumer demand that’s been occurring throughout the pandemic, and we’ve seen the import levels just go through the roof
And that boom looks set to continue, with China purchasing millions of tons of US farm goods for this year and next and stuck-at-home US consumers still shopping and importing in record amounts.
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