ASEAN Becomes China’s 2nd Largest Trading Partner

Perhaps its the Trump tariffs or maybe it’s just a case of growing regional interactions, but recent data from China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) shows that in 2019 the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has overtaken the United States to become China’s second largest trading partner. The US is now third.

China’s trade volume with ASEAN climbed 14.1% to 4.43 trillion yuan or $642.7 billion U.S. dollars last year, while trade with the US dropped 10.7% to just 3.73 trillion yuan.

In total China’s foreign trade rose 3.4% in 2019 to 31.54 trillion yuan.

in 2019 the European Union was once again China’s top trading partner with an 8% increase to 4.86 trillion yuan in bilateral trade, while trade with their fourth largest partner Japan rose only 0.4% to 21.17 trillion yuan.

Now that ASEAN has become China’s 2nd largest trading partner we expect to see more growth and increased business for both China and ASEAN in the year ahead.