China Trade Surplus With US Surges

China’s trade surplus with the US surged by a fifth in the first three months of the year with China calling on Washington to be patient as tensions between the economic superpowers simmer.

Fears of a trade war have been rumbling since last month as President Donald Trump has threatened a series of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods, sparking tit-for-tat warnings from Beijing, AFP reported.

The stand-off lies in the Trump administration’s ire at massive levies and what it considers unfair practices by China that he says are costing American jobs.

President Xi Jinping’s vow this week to cut tariffs in some sectors, and Trump’s warm response, have calmed some concerns—but a vast gulf in expectations remains between the two nations.

The latest data showed China continues to benefit from the two-way trade. Its surplus with the US rose 19.4% on-year to $58 billion in January-March, with exports up 14.8% and imports 8.9% higher.

However, for March the surplus fell to $15.4 billion from February’s $21 billion, while it was also down from $17.7 billion 12 months ago.

China registered a rare deficit of $4.98 billion with the rest of the world last month owing to seasonal factors such as the Lunar New Year holiday.

Against the backdrop of recent tensions, customs bureau spokesman Huang Songping repeated China’s line that it is not looking for an advantage over its trading partners. “We don’t strive for a favorable balance of trade (for China), the current state of trade affairs are shaped by the market,” he told a briefing in Beijing.

“We hope that the US will listen patiently to rational and pragmatic voices on the trade balance issue.” He reiterated that China does not want a trade war, saying “this trade friction is not conducive to China’s interests, nor is it conducive to the interests of the US.”

After Trump unveiled another set of planned tariffs last Friday, Xi this week struck a conciliatory note, promising to cut tariffs on cars—a key point of US anger—and other imports, as well as further open up the economy.

Xi “said he’s going to open up China. He’s going to open it up, take down a lot of the trade barriers—maybe all of them,” Trump told lawmakers on Thursday.

The US has not “shown the sincerity needed for negotiations,” commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng said Thursday.