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China's trade with the US rose 61.3 percent to reach 1.08 trillion yuan ($165 billion) in the first three months this year, the highest growth rate among all of China's trading partners, data from Chinese customs authorities showed on Tuesday. 

This demonstrated a continued trend of China-US trade rebounding from an ebb last year triggered by Trump's trade war and exacerbated by the COVID19 outbreak. The rebound started in May last year, and is speeding up as US market demand accelerates thanks to its colossal fiscal spending plan, experts said. 

Currently, the US is China's third largest trading partner behind the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. 

EU's trade with China rose 36.4 percent in the first three months while China-ASEAN trade rose 26.1 percent in the same period. China-US trade rose 69.6 percent year-on-year in the first two months of this year. 

According to Tian Yun, vice director of the Beijing Economic Operation Association, the growth of China-US trade in the first quarter looked "super strong", as the trade boom in the first two months could be attributed in large part to a low statistical base last year because of China's shutdowns to control the coronavirus, but the economic standstill then started to improve in March last year, meaning that March's growth was driven by a genuine demand surge. 

"This again shows that China-US trade is continuing a trend of walking out of the trade war shadow since May 2019, which will likely persist in 2021," Tian said. 

According to Tian, the trend is partly spurred by the US government's repeated huge fiscal stimulus plans, which have increased US families' incomes and consumption.

"I believe that China-US relations will be in a state of 'political chill and economic heat' this year, as the two countries' growing business interaction means the Biden administration will not decouple their economic cooperation with hardline methods," Tian said. 

He predicted that China-US trade volume may grow 20-30 percent this year, with bilateral trade volume contributing 7 percentage points to China's overall foreign trade increase this year.

Global Times