8 Sep 2025
While overall exports growth slowed to its weakest level in six months, and President Donald Trump’s policy targeting trans-shipments weighed on exports and businesses, frontloading activity lost momentum.
👉Imports from the U.S. also dropped 16% from a year ago, customs data showed.
👉China’s total exports climbed 4.4% in August in U.S. dollar terms from a year earlier, customs data showed Monday, marking their lowest growth since February while missing Reuters-polled economists’ estimates for a 5.0% rise.
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.
👉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.
➡️ 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.
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 billion of Chinese goods this year as of August. Exports to the EU stood at $541 billion over the same period.
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.
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.
Source: CNBC
