China’s trade surplus with the United States widened last year, underlining the failure of Donald Trump to narrow the gap during his tenure, while demand soared for electronics and medical equipment during the coronavirus pandemic.
The pick-up came on the back of a jump in exports through most of last year as China’s factories kicked back into gear from the second quarter following a strict lockdown that managed to broadly contain COVID-19 and allow economic activity to return.
Trump had made addressing the gaping trade gap with China a priority when he took office four years ago, and signed a partial agreement with Beijing to boost the country’s purchases of goods such as soybeans.
But Chinese customs data showed the surplus with the US climbed 7.1 per cent to $316.9 billion in 2020. The figure is a 14.9 per cent jump from 2017’s surplus of $275.8 billion – which was already a sensitive political issue due to Trump’s claims that China held unfair practices and killed US jobs.
While the world’s second-largest economy suffered a record contraction in the first quarter of last year as the coronavirus essentially brought all activity to a halt, it soon recovered as lockdowns around...
