A cargo ship is loading and unloading foreign trade containers at Qingdao Port in Qingdao Port, Shandong Province, China on June 9, 2025. <\/p>\n
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images<\/p>\n
China’s shipments to the U.S. plunged 33% in August while overall exports growth slowed to its weakest level in six months, as President Donald Trump’s policy targeting transshipments weighed on exports and businesses’ frontloading activity lost momentum.<\/p>\n
Imports from the U.S. also dropped 16% from a year ago, customs data showed.<\/strong><\/p>\n China’s total exports climbed 4.4% in August in U.S. dollar terms from a year earlier, customs data showed Monday<\/a>, marking their lowest growth since February while missing\u00a0Reuters-polled economists’ estimates for a 5.0% rise.<\/p>\n That growth slowed from the prior two months, in part reflecting the statistical effect of a high base last year when China’s exports grew at their fastest pace in nearly one-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n Imports rose 1.3% last month from a year ago, missing Reuters estimates for a 3% growth. Imports rose for a third straight month after returning to growth in June, albeit still muted due to the persistent real estate slump, rising job insecurity, among other things.<\/p>\n China has increasingly relied on alternative markets, particularly Southeast Asia and European Union nations, Africa and Latin America, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policy has pressured U.S.-bound shipments.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, no one country has come close to the U.S. which remains China’s largest trading partner on a single-country basis, absorbing $283<\/a> billion of Chinese goods<\/a> this year as of August. Exports to the EU stood at $541 billion over the same period.<\/p>\n Beijing and Washington on Aug. 11 agreed to extend their tariff truce by another 90 days, locking in place U.S. tariffs of around 55% on Chinese imports and 30% Chinese duties on U.S. goods, according to Peterson Institute for International Economist<\/a>.<\/p>\n But bilateral talks appear to be struggling to reach a breakthrough, with a late-August visit to Washington by top Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang yielding little progress.<\/p>\n Chinese exporters have relied on routing shipments to third countries to sidestep U.S. tariffs \u2014 a tactic that is facing the test of tightening U.S. scrutiny over the so-called transshipments, which analysts have warned could weigh on Chinese exports in the coming months.<\/p>\n