Trade volume between China and the US hit $441.6 billion in the first three quarters of the year, surpassing the $438.1 billion in trade between Canada and the USA, the Commerce Department reported on Wednesday in Washington. Figures published Wednesday also showed that the US trade shortfall with China is now at an all-time high, fueled by record imports.
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Crude oil is among Canada’s biggest exports, and its price has collapsed to about half of its 2014 peak.
“It’s completely an oil story”, said Jacob Oubina, senior USA economist at RBC Capital Markets LLC in New York.
The U.S. remains the largest trading partner by far of Canada, accounting for $261 billion in exports and $234 billion in imports over the first nine months of the year. “In nominal terms, yes, the trade with China overtakes Canada, but in real terms, it’s very different”.
Exports grew 8.8 per cent year-on-year to RM70.16 billion and imports rose 9.6 per cent to RM60.47 billion, giving a surplus of RM9.69 billion, it said in a statement, adding this was the 215th consecutive month of trade surplus since November 1997.
On a monthly basis, both exports and imports increased a seasonally adjusted 5.2 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively in September.
But the USA demand for higher value-added goods from China has increased.
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Malaysia’s total trade rose 9.1 per cent year-on-year to RM130.63 billion in September 2015, said the Ministry of global Trade and Industry.
