CHINA HAS ALREADY sold huge amounts of products originally meant for US consumers to its neighbors, it was revealed today.
And the neighbors are buying big, giving China giant an 8.1% boost in export sales, surprising analysts.
"In early April, I said that Trump's tariffs on China will strengthen trade ties between China and the rest of the world in the next few years," said Prof Justin Hauge of Cambridge University in the UK, commenting on X. "It didn't take a few years. It took a month."
This is bad news for US Treasury chief Scott Bessent as he heads into negotiations later today in Switzerland, to bargain with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.
THE NUMBERS
Newly published figures show exports from China rose a staggering 8.1% in April, compared to this time last year. Most of the goods are being snapped up by Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and other countries.
Bloomberg's stable of analysts predicted a 2% rise and Reuters predicted a 1.9% jump.
The 8.1% leap follows 12.4% growth in March, when exporters worked overtime to beat the April 2 launch of Donald Trump's "global tariff attack".
The Financial Times quoted Heron Lim, an economist at Moody’s Analytics, saying that, while China's trade with the US dropped 21% year-on-year in April, it rose by an equal percentage with south-east Asian nations and 8 per cent with the EU.
Economists have been arguing that the US has an inability to see itself as it really is, a community of just 4.25% of the world.
China, which is focused on trade rather than politics, makes goods for anyone who will buy—and that means the other 95% of humanity will do just fine as substitute customers.
Author: Saikat Bhattacharya
