China’s $1-Billion Daily U.S. Exports Show Xi’s Leverage Over Trump

Six months into Donald Trump’s trade war, the resilience of Chinese exports is proving just how essential many of its products remain, even after U.S. tariffs of 55%.

China’s dominance in sectors such as rare earths and electronics makes its products difficult to replace—at least in the short term..

Every day, about $1 billion worth of goods cross the Pacific from China to the U.S., with totals rising in September from August, Bloomberg News reported.

Despite double-digit drops in overall trade over the past six months, some products have recently seen increases from 2024 levels, defying trade tensions between Beijing and Washington.

The upshot is that U.S. tariffs appear limited in their ability to constrain imports, as China’s dominance in sectors such as rare earths and electronics makes its products difficult to replace—at least in the short term.

That may change over time, especially if Trump further raises tariffs, as the Republican leader has repeatedly threatened to do.

“China’s strong position in global supply chains gives it some bargaining power with U.S. importers in the near term,” wrote Bloomberg economists Chang Shu and David Qu, who cautioned that other countries cannot quickly replace China as a supplier to the U.S.

“Realigning production will take time,” they added.

All this is giving President Xi Jinping more leverage as his trade negotiators head into talks aimed at extending a 90-day tariff truce set to expire in November.

In the third quarter, more than $100 billion worth of Chinese goods arrived in the U.S., helping Beijing stay on track to meet its annual growth target and pushing the bilateral trade surplus up to $67 billion.