Tue, Oct 15, 2019 page10

• China’s trade sputters amid cooldown

  ‘CONTRACTION’: A major escalation in Beijing’s trade dispute with Washington was ‘partly to blame’ for the low export figures, which fell 3.2 percent, an economist said

  • AFP, BEIJING
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  China’s imports and exports last month fell more than expected, official data showed yesterday, as US tariffs and cooling demand at home and abroad hit trade in the world’s second-largest economy.

  Globally, China’s exports dropped 3.2 percent from the same period last year, while imports dove 8.5 percent, Chinese General Administration of Customs data showed.

  The figures were worse than a Bloomberg forecast, which estimated exports to drop 2.8 percent and imports fall 6 percent.

  China’s total trade surplus was US$39.65 billion, the data showed.

  The US is now China’s third-biggest trade partner — after the EU and ASEAN — with imports from the US down 26.4 percent annually last month.

  China’s trade surplus with the US narrowed 3.9 percent to US$25.8 billion from US$26.9 billion in August.

  “We believe that as Sino-US trade negotiations have made progress ... and we expect further healthy development in bilateral trade,” agency spokesman Li Kuiwen (李奎文) said.

  A major escalation in a trade dispute with the US last month was “partly to blame” for the weak figures, Capital Economics Ltd’s Julian Evans-Pritchard said.

  The US government on Sept. 1 imposed 15 percent tariffs on more than US$125 billion in Chinese imports and Beijing retaliated with its own fresh levies.

  As a result, “the contraction in exports to the US deepened further, while shipments to the rest of the world held steady,” Evans-Pritchard wrote in a research note.

  China promised to increase US agricultural purchases in a partial trade deal announced on Friday, which also includes protections for intellectual property and opening up financial markets.

  However, it might only offer a temporary tariff reprieve, because it lacks specifics and leaves the thorny issues, such as unfair state subsidies to Chinese firms, for later, analysts told reporters.

  So far, the two sides have imposed punitive tariffs covering more than US$360 billion of goods in two-way trade.

  “With the mini-US-China trade deal unlikely to alleviate the main headwinds facing exporters, it will take longer before growth in outbound shipments bottoms out,” Evans-Pritchard said.

  PORK IMPORTS SURGE

  Chinese imports, which declined for the fifth consecutive month amid cooling domestic demand, might also not see a strong recovery, he said.

  However, pork imports last month surged 43.6 percent annually after an African swine fever outbreak devastated pig supplies in the country.

  Engulfed in an impeachment inquiry, US President Donald Trump heralded the Friday deal as a major breakthrough.

  However, it would take weeks to finalize and the details are not clear — nor would it roll back tariffs already in place on hundreds of billions of dollars in two-way trade.

  “The deal is still tentative and tensions between the US and China remain high,” said Tommy Wu from Oxford Economics.

  China’s state media also struck a cautionary tone and did not mention any “deal.”
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