U.S. government figures show that exports from the U.S. to China fell sharply in 2025. Figures for January-November 2025 show the dollar value for exports at $90.912 billion. That puts U.S. exports to China on track for less than $110 billion for the full year, the lowest dollar value for exports to its largest trading partner since 2019, when the figure was $106.481 billion (rising to $153.987 billion in 2020). 

Whilst the figure is influenced by a weaker dollar value, meaning exports are worth less than before, it shows that President Donald Trump’s strategy of reducing the U.S.-China trade deficit is bringing down the volume of both imports and exports.

The figures for 2025 are incomplete in part because of lack of funding to the U.S. Census Bureau during the longest U.S. government shutdown in history, from October 1 to November 12, 2025.

But the trends are clear. The value of exports to China fell dramatically from April 2025, after Trump announced “Liberation Day” punitive tariffs on imports from dozens of countries, sparking retaliation from China. Exports to China dropped from $11.458 billion in March 2025, to $8.193 billion in April, then $6.553 billion in May, before climbing again to $9.442 billion in June as the two countries entered negotiations to avoid an all-out trade war.

Imports from China to the U.S. also fell notably during 2025, to $266.324 billion for the January-October period, from $438.742 billion during the whole of 2024.

The trade deficit reduced year on year, from $295.515 billion for the whole of 2024, to $175.412 billion January-October 2025, indicating it is likely to be the lowest since 2005, after spiking at $418.232 billion in 2018 — two years before the COVID pandemic — when U.S. imports from China reached an all-time high of $538.514 billion, more than five times the figure for the year 2000.

In terms of the proportion of value of trade going in either direction, exports from the U.S. to China held at a steady 20-25% of imports from China, from 2000 through 2021, but then began to spike, reaching 35% in 2022. Even with the recent drop in overall trade, that figure was around 34% in 2025.

China’s main exports to the U.S. are electronics (including smartphones and computers), furniture, toys, plastics and apparel, while it imports mostly American oilseeds and grains, meat, machinery and technology.