
Merchandise trade balance of China 2012-2022
Trade balance and partners
In 2022, Chinese imports of goods amounted to approximately 2.72 trillion U.S. dollars, whereas total exports added up to about 3.59 trillion U.S. dollars. In contrast, China’s invisible trade balance, an indicator measuring services and government transfers between countries, closed with a deficit and ranged at about -100 billion U.S. dollars at the end of 2021.
Being an economy heavily reliant on export, China ranked first among countries with the highest trade surplus, followed by Germany and Russia. The United States, with imports exceeding exports by approximately 976 billion U.S. dollars that year, ranked first among leading import countries worldwide. In 2021, the value of the U.S. imports from China exceeded the exports to China by around 355.3 billion U.S. dollars.
Another important trade partner for China is the European Union. In 2021, the EU imported around 472 billion euro-worth of goods from China, leading to a trade deficit of nearly 249 billion euros. Product categories with the highest trade deficit a year earlier were mostly finished goods such as machinery and transport equipment, clothing, and other manufactures, whereas product categories with a more balanced trade sheet consisted of raw materials and agricultural products to a large extent.