BEIJING — China’s trade with the United States fell by double digits again in September amid a tariff war that threatens to tip the global economy into recession.
Exports to the United States, China’s biggest foreign market, fell 17.8 percent to $36.5 billion, a deterioration from August’s 16 percent decline, customs data showed Monday. Imports of American goods sank 20.6 percent from the year before to $10.6 billion, a slight improvement over August’s 22 percent decline.
President Donald Trump agreed Friday to put off an additional tariff hike planned for this week on Chinese imports. In exchange, he said Beijing agreed to buy up to $50 billion of American farm goods. But they reported no agreements on disputes over China’s trade surplus and technology policies that brought on the 15-month-old fight.
“The external environment facing China’s foreign trade development is still complicated and severe. Instability and uncertainty are increasing,” a customs agency spokesman, Li Kuiwen, said at a news conference.
Tit-for-tat tariff hikes on billions of dollars of each other’s goods have battered manufacturers and farmers on both sides and disrupted supply chains worldwide. Uncertainty has prompted some companies to postpone investments, adding to downward pressure on global growth and fueling financial market jitters.
China’s global exports fell 1.4 percent from a year earlier to $218.1 billion. Imports fell 5.8 percent to $178.5 billion.
The slump adds to pressure on President Xi Jinping’s government to shore up cooling economic growth and prevent politically risky job losses.
Chinese growth fell to its lowest level in at least 26 years in the quarter ending in June, decelerating to 6.2 percent over a year earlier.
Forecasters expect growth in the July-September quarter, due to be reported this week, to fall to as low as 5.9 percent, sinking below the ruling Communist Party’s official target for the year of at least 6 percent.
“While import growth should start to recover soon, it will take longer before export growth bottoms out,” said Martin Lynge Rasmussen of Capital Economics in a report. “The mini U.S.-China trade deal reached on Friday doesn’t alter the outlook significantly.”
The country’s politically sensitive trade surplus with the United States contracted by 16.5 percent from a year earlier but stood at $25.9 billion.
