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January 2018 Trade Bulletin

Highlights of This Month’s Edition

·         Bilateral trade: The U.S. trade deficit in goods with China totaled $35.4 billion in November 2017, its highest monthly level in the past two years and a 16.2 percent increase year-on-year.

·         Bilateral policy issues: President Trump issues National Security Strategy calling for more assertive policies to combat Chinese influence campaigns and economic coercion; the U.S. government is pursuing multilateral and bilateral approaches to confront China’s market-distorting support for sectors such as steel and aluminum.

·         Policy trends in China’s economy: At the Central Economic Work Conference, Chinese leaders maintain last year’s focus on financial risks and supply-side structural reform but place less emphasis on deleveraging; IMF cites China’s credit growth, regulation, and implicit credit guarantees from banks and government actors as top concerns in its most recent financial system stability report.

·         Sector focus – Consumer Goods: U.S. consumer goods exports to China experience consistent growth from 2003 to 2016 despite accounting for a small portion of U.S. exports to China; on December 1, the Chinese government cut tariffs on several products, including top U.S. consumer good exports.