China's exports beat expectations in April, but shipments to the US fall 17.6% month-on-month amid trade war
BEIJING: China's exports rose faster than expected in April, while imports narrowed their declines, customs data showed on Friday (May 9), giving Beijing some relief ahead of ice-breaker tariff talks with the US this weekend.
Outbound shipments from the world's second-largest economy rose 8.1 per cent year-on-year, beating the 1.9 per cent growth expected in a Reuters poll of economists but slowing from the 12.4 per cent jump in March, when exporters scrambled to get their shipments out before the 145 per cent US tariffs on Chinese goods took effect.
However, official data showed China's exports to the US fell 17.6 per cent month-on-month in April.
Shipments to the US totalled US$33 billion last month, falling from US$40.1 billion in March, according to data published by China's General Administration of Customs.
Imports slowed a slide that began at the start of 2025, falling 0.2 per cent, from a 4.3 per cent year-on-year drop in March and below the 5.9 per cent drop expected by analysts.
The new trade data comes with China and the United States locked in a heated trade war, which saw both sides ratchet up tariffs on each other's goods to over 100 per cent in early April.
The Trump administration has since exempted items including smartphones and computers, imported largely from China, from the 145 per cent tariffs. Beijing has also created a list of US-made products that would be exempted from its 125 per cent tariffs and is quietly notifying companies about the policy, Reuters previously reported.
Chinese and US officials will meet this weekend in Switzerland to start trade negotiations.
But an immediate lowering of trade barriers seems a long shot, with Trump saying on Wednesday he was not willing to cut US tariffs to get Beijing to negotiate, and China's foreign ministry insisting that Washington should "stop threatening and pressuring" it.
The US tariffs could deal a heavy blow to China's economy, which has relied on exports to drive growth as it struggles to recover from the pandemic shocks and a protracted property market slump. Domestic demand remains weak and investor confidence is fragile.
Beijing has in the past few months reiterated its confidence that China could achieve the "around 5 per cent" growth target for the year, and rolled out measures to bolster consumption and support the country's exporters.
A slew of monetary stimulus measures, including liquidity injections and cuts to policy rates, were announced on Wednesday in a bid to ease tariff hits on the economy.
China's April surplus came in at US$96.18 billion, down from the US$102.64 billion the previous month.
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