China’s purchases of U.S. goods are still falling short of trade agreement levels, even as overall Chinese imports from the U.S. have surged.
That’s according to analysis out Monday from the U.S.-based Peterson Institute for International Economics.
In January 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic and under former U.S. President Donald Trump, China agreed to buy at least $200 billion more in U.S. goods and services over the next two years, relative to the 2017 level. Known as the phase one trade deal, the purchase agreement included specific agriculture, energy and manufactured products.
However, as of June, both Chinese and U.S. government data indicated that China had bought less than 70% of the year-to-date target, according to estimates from Peterson Institute senior fellow Chad P. Bown.
Agriculture purchases again came the closest to meeting agreement levels, at 90% of the target, according to U.S. data that Bown cited.
The shortfall comes as trade between the two countries has grown, according to Chinese customs data.
China’s imports from the U.S. in the first half of the year rose to $87.94 billion, up 55.5% from the same period in 2020 and up nearly 49.3% from the first six months of 2019.
Meanwhile, China exported $252.86 billion worth of goods to the U.S. in the first half of 2021 — up 42.6% from the same period in 2020 and a rise of 26.8% from the first half of 2019.
As a result, the U.S. remains China’s largest trading partner on a single-country basis, despite trade tensions that escalated under the Trump administration.
U.S.-China trade talks at a standstill
At a press conference in mid-July, Ministry of Commerce Spokesman Gao Feng declined to confirm whether the phase one agreement was still being implemented.
Instead, he said China has always encouraged both sides to “work together to create an atmosphere and the conditions for implementing the agreement,” according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.
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