WASHINGTON — For the veryfirst time in more than 2 years, Mexico last year exceeded China as the leading source of products imported by the United States. The shift shows the growing stress inbetween Washington and Beijing as well as U.S. efforts to import from nations that are friendlier and closer to home.
Figures launched Wednesday by the U.S. Commerce Department program that the worth of products imported by the United States from Mexico increased almost 5% from 2022 to 2023, to more than $475 billion. At the verysame time, the worth of Chinese imports toppled 20% to $427 billion.
The last time that Mexican items imported by the United States surpassed the worth of China’s imports was in2002
Economic relations inbetween the United States and China have significantly degraded in current years as Beijing hasactually battled strongly on trade and made threatening military gestures in the Far East.
The Trump administration started enforcing tariffs on Chinese imports in 2018, arguing that Beijing’s trade practices broke international trade guidelines. President Joe Biden maintained those tariffs after taking workplace in 2021, making clear that antagonism towards China would be a uncommon location of typical ground for Democrats and Republicans.
As an option to offshoring production to China, which U.S. corporations had long engaged in, the Biden administration has advised business to lookfor providers in allied nations (“friend-shoring”) or to return production to the United States (“reshoring”). Supply-chain disturbances associated to the COVID-19 pandemic likewise led U.S. business to lookfor products closer to the Un