China-U.S. trade has been mutually beneficial, and the United States has reaped substantial benefits from the bilateral economic and trade cooperation, China's Ministry of Commerce said Thursday in a research report.
"China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation has reached unprecedented depth and breadth," said the report, noting that bilateral goods trade surged by roughly 252 times from 1979 to US$633.5 billion last year.
Bilateral trade in services exceeded US$125 billion in 2018, and two-way direct investment totaled nearly US$160 billion in the past four decades.
China's surplus came mainly from labor-intensive products, and the country saw deficits for products including aircraft, integrated circuits, automobiles and agricultural products, showing both countries have capitalized on their respective industrial advantages, it added.
"Strict control of the United States over exports to China is one of the important reasons for the trade deficit," the report read, adding that U.S. export control measures involve around 3,100 items in 10 categories, including mostly high-tech products.
If the United States were to liberalize its export barriers against China to the same level as those applicable to France, the U.S. trade deficit with China would narrow by a third, the report cited the analysis by U.S. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
