China appeared largely unfazed by the Trump administration’s tariff regime, posting a record annual trade surplus of more than $1 trillion as of November.
According to new customs data released Monday, China’s exports climbed 5.9% from a year earlier to $330.3 billion, following a 1.1% drop in October, the Associated Press reported. Over the first 11 months of the year, China’s total trade surplus grew 22.1%, reaching roughly $1.08 trillion, already surpassing last year’s full-year surplus of $992 billion.
The widening trade gap comes even as exports to the U.S. continue to crater. Shipments to the U.S. dropped nearly 29% compared to 2024, marking the eighth straight month of declines.
The numbers also come on the heels of a year-long trade truce reached in late October between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a meeting in South Korea. Under the agreement, the U.S. reduced some tariffs on Chinese goods, while Beijing pledged to lift its export restrictions on rare earth minerals and resume imports of American soybeans.
Economists say those tariff cuts likely have not yet shown up in the November export data.
“It’s likely that November exports have yet to fully reflect the tariff cut, which should feed through in the coming months,” Lynn Song, ING’s chief economist for Greater China, wrote in a note.
Imports, meanwhile, rose 1.9% year-over-year in November, a slight improvement from October’s 1% growth.
China’s growing surplus is being driven in large part by a surge in sales to Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. As of November, exports to the European Union were up 14.8% year-over-year, while shipments to Australia jumped 35.8%, and Southeast Asian economies imported 8.2% more goods over the same period, according to ING.
China’s growing surplus has also alarmed other nations. French President Emmanuel Macron, fresh off a three-day state visit to China, warned that Europe may impose tariffs of its own if Beijing does not address the imbalance.
“I tried to explain to the Chinese that their trade surplus is unsustainable because they are killing their own customers, particularly by no longer importing much from us,” Macron said in an interview published on Sunday by French outlet Les Echos. “I told them that if they do not react, we Europeans would be forced, in the coming months, to take strong measures following the example of the United States, such as imposing tariffs on Chinese products.”
If the EU were to impose tariffs, Song noted, it would pose “a significant risk to the external demand outlook for China,” according to Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the goods and services deficit increased by $142.5 billion, or 25%, year over year, according to federal data released in November. Exports rose by $108.4 billion, or 5.1%, while imports increased by $250.9 billion, or 9.2%, despite the elevated global tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
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