ASEAN remained China's most important trading partner in 2024, with a total import and export value of about 6.99 trillion yuan. The European Union followed with a trade value of approximately 5.59 trillion yuan.

In 2024, ASEAN was China's most important trading partner, with a 15.9 percent share in total imports and exports. The trade value between these two trading blocks amounted to 6.99 trillion yuan. Meanwhile, the United States's share in China's foreign trade remained at 11.2 percent.

As of 2023, China was the leading trading partner for the majority of Middle Eastern and North African countries in terms of imports and export. However, China only ranked fourth in terms of imports for Qatar and 17th in exports for Turkey and Bahrain.

In 2023, Mexico was the top trading partner of the United States based on import value. In that year, U.S. imports from Mexico totaled to 475.6 billion U.S. dollars. China and Canada rounded out the top three as these countries continue to enjoy a close trading relationship under the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. Germany and Japan were also high on the list, both providing the U.S. with over 140 billion dollars worth of imports in 2023.

In 2023, the main trade partner of Brazil was China: trade between both countries exceeded 157 billion U.S. dollars. Furthermore, the South American economy registered a trade surplus of 51 billion dollars with China. The United States ranked as the second most important trade partner, although in this case Brazil had a trade deficit.

In 2024, the European Union countries imported approximately 14.4 percent of the Chinese export volume. In that year, ASEAN was the largest Chinese merchandise importer. Distribution of Chinese exports In 2024, China exported goods with a total value of around 25.5 trillion yuan and imported goods with a value of 18.4 trillion yuan. That year, China ranked second among the countries with the largest gross domestic product, following the United States.China’s economic prosperity has been closely related to its status as the world’s factory. For about a decade between 2005 and 2015, exports contributed more than 20 percent to China’s gross domestic product. However, the share of exports to GDP contribution is currently on the decline. Nonetheless, China maintains a trade surplus of about 992 billion U.S. dollars and remains first among countries with the highest trade surplus worldwide as of 2023. While China displays high growth potential for service exports such as tourism, transportation, banking and financial services, as well as insurance and education services, the main focus of China’s export industry remains merchandise. In 2022, Chinese merchandise exports made up 14.4 percent of all global exports, whereas service based exports contributed only six percent.In terms of most exported merchandise categories, food and live animals used for food were the main primary goods. Among the manufactured goods, automatic data processing machines, integrated circuits, clothing, textiles, and smartphones were the categories with the highest export value in China in 2024.

In 2021, Russia's main trade partner was China, as the volume of export and import trade between the two countries reached nearly 141 billion U.S. dollars. China was the country's both leading import origin and export destination. Germany, the Netherlands, Belarus, and the United States completed the list of top five partners.

In 2024, the ASEAN was the largest export destination for China. The value of China's exports to the ASEAN member states exceeded 4.17 trillion yuan, increasing slightly from the previous year.

This statistic depicts the leading 15 trade partners with the United States in 2021 by country. In that year, Canada was the biggest trading partner with the United States, with a trade value that amounted to about 664.8 billion U.S. dollars. These 15 countries made up 75 percent of the United States total international trade value.

The European Union has experienced a shift in its biggest trade partners since the early 2000s. Over the past two decades, the share of EU imports flowing from China has more than doubled, from around 8 percent in 2002 to over 20 percent in 2023, making China the EU's largest external import partner. At the same time, the proportion of total imports coming from the United Kingdom, which was historically a large importer to EU countries (the UK was an EU member state until 2020), have more than halved, from 18 percent to 7 percent. This secular trend existed before the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, however, there has been a notable drop in imports from the UK since Brexit was enacted in 2020. By contrast the share of the EU's import trade taken by the U.S., Switzerland, and the Rest of World have remained relatively stable over this period. The share of exports coming from Russia was growing steadily in the period before 2014, after which the EU imposed economic sanctions on Russia due to the illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Imports from Russia collapsed in 2023, due to the effect of the additional economic sanctions placed on Russia in response to the full scale invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.The Russian Federation is now only the tenth largest exporter to the EU, after India, Japan, and South Korea.

Japan’s trade openness has increased significantly in the last decades as the country is working towards market liberalization and the expansion of trade relations. However, despite the increasing number of bilateral agreements created with trading partners, the United States and China remain Japan's biggest export markets. In 2023, the United States received around 20 percent of commodities leaving Japan. China followed with a 17.6 percent share, with general and electrical machinery being major goods exported from Japan to the East Asian partner. What goods are leaving Japan? Japan exported commodities valued at around 101 trillion Japanese yen in 2023. Transport equipment and machinery were the leading commodities leaving the country, driven by the prominence of domestic automotive and machinery brands in the global market. Motor vehicles are a long-standing pillar of the export market, with widely recognized brands like Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Toyota originating from Japan. Japan’s export position in the global market The demand for Japanese goods has been rising globally, pushed by the favorable impression of quality products among consumers and businesses. While Japan is not a heavily trade-dependent nation, the trade openness ratio jumped significantly in 2022, as the sum of imports and exports constituted a 46.8 percent share of the gross domestic product. Commodity exports themselves accounted for a 17.6 percent share of the Japanese GDP, whereas service exports are a minor segment in Japan’s trade accounts.

The statistic shows China's foreign trade share with selected countries in 2013. China's share of German foreign trade (imports and exports) amounted to about 5.5 percent in 2013.

Main trade partners of China

China's trade pattern has been largely influenced by its overall comparative advantage in labor intensive goods. In 2013, China was by far the world's largest trade nation, surpassing even the United States in terms of total merchandise trade value. That year’s goods exports from China had amounted to approximately 2.2 trillion U.S. dollars, while imports of goods had ranged at approximately 1.95 trillion U.S. dollars. Over the past decades, China has gained a lot of importance in international trade as both production and trading economies all over the world have developed close ties to the red dragon.

In 2013, China accounted for approximately 15 percent of Japan's foreign trade, making China the main trade partner of Japan. Japan mainly exports electronic equipment and machines to China and imports manufactured goods such as clothing from China. However, this relation has suffered since 2012 due to a long-running territorial dispute.

China also has tight trade ties to the United States. In 2013, China was the United States' third largest export market after Canada and Mexico. During the past ten years, goods exported from the United States to China and vice versa have grown substantially. By 2015, the United States have turned into China's main export partner with a share of about 18 percent in total exports from China.

Russia's leading five export partners in 2023 were China, India, Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Brazil. The value of total exports from Russia to its major trade partner — China — exceeded 128 billion U.S. dollars. Trade between Russia and China China was not only the leading export destination of Russian commodities, but also the major import partner of the country. Prior to 2018, the value of Russian imports from China prevailed the Russian exports’ worth to the country. It was in 2018 when for the first time, the trade balance of Russia with China turned positive and amounted to about 3.8 billion U.S. dollars. Russia's primary export goods, mineral and energy products, were also the most imported commodities by China from the country. Russian trade with Europe Trade flows between Russia and the EU have been in decline over the past years. In 2023, the EU export value to Russia exceeded 38 billion U.S. dollars — roughly 12 billion U.S. dollars below the EU imports’ worth from Russia in that year. Germany was the major importer of Russian goods in the region.

With a total trade volume of 5.9 billion U.S. dollars, Brazil ranked as the most important trade partner of Argentina in the first quarter of 2024. During that same period, Argentina's largest trade deficit was with China, as the balance reached -1,158 million dollars.

In 2023, Canada was the top trading partner with the United States based on export value. The U.S. exported goods worth about 354.36 billion U.S. dollars to Canada in that year. Mexico, China, the Netherlands, and Germany rounded out the top five export partners in that year.

In the first quarter of 2024, Nigeria's main import partner was China. In that period, China accounted for about 23.2 percent of the total imports. India and the U.S followed with roughly 8.5 percent and eight percent, respectively. The largest value of imports in Nigeria derives from mineral products.

Ukraine had the largest trade revenue with China, at around 12.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Poland was Ukraine's second-leading trade partner, with the sum of exports from Ukraine and imports to Ukraine measured at over 11 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2022, mainland China was Singapore's largest merchandise trading partner, with a trade value of 167 billion Singapore dollars. This was followed by neighboring the United States, with a merchandise trade value of 129.1 billion Singapore dollars.

In 2023, China registered a trade surplus of over 823 billion U.S. dollars, ranking first among all countries and territories. The United States was this year's largest source of trade surplus for China, with a trade balance of approximately 336 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2024, Canada was the main import partner of 23 U.S. states, making up 86 percent of Montana's total imports, as well as over 60 percent of the total imports of North Dakota, Maine, Vermont, and Wyoming. As the top trade partner of 16 states, China was the second leading trade partner after Canada.