U.S. Trade Deficit With China Is 30% Off Its Peak

Amid the flurry of tariff announcements made by the Trump administration last week, one thing became increasingly clear: China is the real focal point of President Trump's trade war. While other countries were granted a 90-day suspension on the reciprocal tariffs exceeding the 10-percent baseline tariff, China was granted no such pause, instead tariffs were escalated further. And even after it emerged on Friday that several tech products, including smartphones, computers and other consumer electronics were temporarily excluded from the prohibitively high reciprocal tariffs imposed on Chinese imports, President Trump was quick to point out that this was not to be misunderstood as a concession to China. "NOBODY is getting “off the hook” for the unfair Trade Balances, and Non Monetary Tariff Barriers, that other Countries have used against us, especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!" Trump wrote on social media, singling out China as the main perpetrator two more times in the lengthy post.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. trade deficit in goods trade with China widened slightly to $295 billion last year after hitting its lowest level since 2010 in 2023, when imports from China had fallen by more than $100 billion compared to the previous year. Despite the increase in 2024, the deficit with China remains almost 30 percent off its 2018 peak, as tensions – both economic and political – between the two superpowers remain high. Amid those tensions, many companies have already tried to reduce their dependency on China by diversifying their supply chain or moving final assembly to other Asian countries.