Report Details U.S.-China Trade Data Differences

(American Shipper)

The U.S. Commerce Department released a report Thursday highlighting the differences between official trade statistics produced by the United States and China.

The report was prepared by the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade Statistics Working Group, which includes officials from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic and Statistics Administration and Census Bureau, and China’s Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs.

The analysis found that official Chinese data on exports to the United States are typically lower than official U.S. data on imports from China. Similarly, China reports higher imports from the United States than the United States reports that it exports to China. “The result is that Chinese data have historically shown a much smaller trade deficit with the United States than do U.S. data,” the Commerce Department said. Read more here.

View the USTR/ESA report here and press release here.