Announcement of US$275 billion surplus comes as Washington talks of taking tougher line on trade and economic dialogue programme is suspended
China’s huge trade surplus with the United States, a priority for President Donald Trump’s administration, hit a record high last year, adding to worries of a worsening rift between the world’s two largest economies.
The Chinese General Administration of Customs said on Friday that its trade surplus rose 8.6 per cent year on year to US$275.8 billion in 2017 – or about 65 per cent of China’s total global trade surplus.
China’s overall imports for the month missed market expectations, rising just 4.5 per cent year on year, while exports did better than expected, adding 10.9 per cent from a year earlier.
Huang Songping, a spokesman for the customs agency, said China would find it hard to maintain double-digit foreign trade growth this year.
The announcement came at a bad time, as Washington ramps up talk of taking tough economic action against Beijing including punitive tariffs, sanctions and even a trade war, while an important bilateral economic dialogue has hit a major roadblock.
Trump is due to make key decisions soon on whether he will take “strict enforcement actions” against China on solar panels, steel and the alleged theft of intellectual property by Chinese companies, as his hawkish trade advisers have suggested.
Warning to China and US: tread carefully to avoid collision course
Pundits noted that US-China relations have rapidly deteriorated over trade rows since Trump visited Beijing in November, when he boasted of a “very, very great relationship” with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
Trump described the widening trade deficit with China – which Washington has said is US$100 billion wider than Beijing has reported – as “embarrassing” and “horrible” before his China trip.
