Beijing is clamoring for a resumption of trade dialogue with the US, but the request must deal with the data of Chinese Customs which identify 2021 as the golden year of trade between China and the rest of the world. The surplus, especially that with the US, instead of decreasing rose to 676 billion dollars thanks to exports, which increased by 29.9% thanks to global demand linked to the reopening of many post-pandemic countries. Imports, again based on Chinese data, grew by 30.1%.
Controversial US-China relationship
China hopes that the United States can allow more trade amid the thousands of uncertainties about the “Phase 1” agreements by creating the conditions for expanding trade cooperation. However, Chinese purchases of US goods in the past two years have not lived up to the objectives of the Trump-era trade agreement which aimed above all at reducing the surplus by encouraging the Chinese side to buy American goods.
China has lagged behind the “Phase 1” trade pact which aimed to increase purchases of US goods by $ 200 billion during 2020 and 2021 from 2017 levels, reaching just 60% of the target by November 2021. .
Things are different: only in December, exports rose by 20.9% (slightly more than forecasts), while imports by 19.5% (below expectations), generating a surplus of 94.46 billion. the largest ever recorded on a monthly basis.
The chasm of the surplus
Yet there is a need to talk to each other again. Huang Ping, Chinese consul general in New York, told the China-US Business Alliance that economic and trade ties have always been the cornerstone of relations between the two countries.