China-US trade volume grew 12.2 percent from January to March in dollar terms from last year, Chinese Customs said on Wednesday.

The growth rate was slightly lower than the 12.3-percent-growth in the first two months of the year, as bilateral trade volume hit $185 billion from January to March.

According to Chinese Customs data released on Wednesday, China's exports to the US increased by 16.7 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to reach $138 billion, up from the13.8 percent growth registered for the first two months.

The massive shipments underline the competitiveness of Chinese products and could be linked to the US’s loosening of tariff on Chinese products, Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the MOFCOM, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

In March the US Trade Representative’s office reinstated 352 expired Chinese products exclusions from US "Section 301" tariffs, a move which showed trade war launched by the US has not achieved its intended effect, while exposing the US’ reliance on Chinese commodities to ease inflation which has accelerated to 8.5 percent in March, hitting four-decade high.

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said last Tuesday that US is seeking to realign its commercial ties with China rather than seek a "divorce" between the world's two biggest economies.

“Tai’s remarks shows that US has to succumb to reality of high inflation rates.  Evidence has shown that the tariffs on Chinese products will only add the cost faced by US consumers,” Bai said.

China’s imports from US in the first three months grew by 0.8 percent from last year, reaching $47 billion, lower than the 8.3 percent growth in the first two months.

The slowing import growth of US products is largely the fault of US government’s blocking high-tech exports to China, Bai said.

“Double standards of US were clearly on display when the US is blocking China from importing US high-tech products while urging China to increase imports from the US,” Bai said.

Trade between China and the US soared by 28.7 percent and stood at $755.6 billion in 2021, contributing 12 percent to China's record $6 trillion foreign trade for the year.

Overall China-US trade still has potential to grow further, experts said.