Chinese exports to the US fall nearly 20% in 2025 marked by the trade war

Shanghai (China).- Exports denominated in yuan from China to the United States fell 19.5% throughout 2025, marked by the return of Donald Trump to the White House and the consequent intensification of the trade war that the American president initiated during his first government (2017-2021). According to figures released this Wednesday by the General Administration of Customs of the Asian country, sales stood at about 3.01 trillion yuan ($431.06 billion, €370.065 billion).

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For their part, imports of US goods contracted by 14.1% to about 999.98 billion yuan ($143.362 billion, 123.076 billion euros) in the recently completed fiscal year. The total trade exchanges denominated in the Chinese currency between both powers fell by 18.2% in 2025, while the surplus of the Asian giant – one of Trump’s reasons for starting the trade war in 2018 – contracted by 22.7%, according to calculations made by EFE, although it remained at 2.01 trillion yuan (287.698 billion dollars, 246.989 billion euros). The figures contrast with those of the previous year, when those exchanges increased by 4.9%, with exports rising by 6.1% and imports by 1.2%. In any case, the United States remained in 2025 as China’s third-largest trading partner, behind two regional blocs such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU), and the first on the list of individual countries. It is worth noting, within ASEAN, the 23.1% increase in exports to Vietnam, as some analysts have pointed out that the neighboring country has served as a transshipment point for some Chinese goods to avoid tariffs when accessing the US market. This past year was marked by constant tensions between the world’s two main economic powers, with moments of tariff escalation that led to a ‘de facto’ cross-trade embargo, although Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, signed a one-year truce at the end of October after a meeting in South Korea. EFE