Beijing has reduced its market share in total imports to the United States, the world’s largest importer; but at the same time it has increased its external sales to other destinations such as Mexico and Vietnam, who have increased their exports to the US market proportionally.

Mexico reached a record participation of 2.4% in total product exports from China to the world in 2023, according to a report from the World Trade Organization (WTO) released this Wednesday.

This share has increased over the past three years, from 1.7% in 2020 to 2.0% in 2021 and then to 2.2% in 2022.

China has reduced its market share in total imports to the United States, the world’s largest importer; but at the same time it has increased its external sales to other destinations such as Mexico and Vietnam, who have increased their exports to the US market proportionally.

Chinese global merchandise exports grew from US$2.6 trillion in 2020 to US$3.4 trillion in 2023.

CHINESE EXPORTS

Considering the last three years, Chinese exports to some regions, such as the Americas and Europe, decreased in relative terms, while exports to Africa, the Middle East and the Russian Federation increased their percentages, although starting from lower levels.

Despite their relative decline, the United States and the European Union remain the largest single destinations for China’s merchandise exports.

Between 40 and 45% of merchandise exports go to Asia and Oceania. Africa and the Middle East represent approximately 5% of exports, with a slightly increasing trend.

Conversely, China’s merchandise imports also saw a solid increase, from US$2.1 trillion in 2020 to US$2.7 trillion in 2022, but declined to US$2.6 trillion in 2023.

The European Union, Taiwan, Penghu, Chinese Taipei, Japan and the United States are the largest single geographic sources of merchandise imports to China.

Between 40% and 50% of imports come from Asia and Oceania, 17% from America, 14% from Europe, 9% from the Middle East and 5% from Africa.

David Bisbee, deputy permanent representative of the United States to the WTO, said in a statement that China is not the only WTO Member that still operates a non-market economy. There are some others. But what distinguishes the PRC from them is that Beijing operates its non-market economy in a “predatory” manner.

“That is, due to the size of its economy and the volume of its trade, the People’s Republic of China is in a unique position to be able to use its state-led economic approach to eliminate foreign competition and accumulate market power,” he added.

According to him, through state-led industrial plans such as Made in China 2025, China is targeting key industries to dominate, both in the Chinese market and globally, and the full weight of the Chinese state is deployed in support of this goal. of domination.

It means that foreign companies do not compete against individual PRC companies; “They are competing against the PRC state and PRC companies acting in concert,” he said.

In terms of the sectoral composition of China’s GDP, the previous long-term structural shift away from industry and towards services has been halted over the past three years.

The contribution of agriculture to GDP remained constant, between 7.5 and 8%. The industry contribution increased slightly after the pandemic, to around 33% in 2022, and then decreased slightly to 31.7% in 2023.

Services accounted for about 55% of China’s GDP in 2023, the same proportion as in 2020.

The service sectors that grew most rapidly during the review period were information transmission, software and financial intermediation, while the relative importance of the real estate sector declined.