China only completed purchases of about 63 percent of the commitments to
products in trade deals reached with the US during the Trump administration.
Reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday (02/09/2022), China purchased about 62.9
percent of the extra products promised as purchases worth US$200 billion in
a phase one agreement over 2 years until the end of 2021.
This is in accordance with Bloomberg's analysis of data released by the
Census Bureau of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
Energy is the sector that China misses the most, buying only a third of its
promised exports.
China is close to achieving its full target in agricultural products, which
is about 83 percent of total commitments. As for the products with the
largest commitments, namely manufacturing, China only bought less than 65
percent of the total commitments.
The US industrial workers' alliance United Steelworkers said China's trade
performance with the US was disappointing.
United Steelworkers President Scott Paul said commodity purchases were never
the solution to improving US-China trade relations.
"The Chinese government can't even keep that promise," Paul said.
According to him, if issues such as China's state-owned enterprises, massive
government subsidies, intellectual property theft, labor laws are not
addressed, then the trade gap will remain.
Trade data in December showed that the annual goods trade deficit with China
rose by $45 billion to $355.3 billion in 2021.
Previously, China had pledged to buy an extra US$200 billion in US
agricultural goods, energy, manufacturing and services on top of its 2017
record in the two years to the end of 2021.