Germany tops US as China’s leading car exporter amid mounting trade disputes

Germany has outpaced the United States as the top exporter of vehicles to the Chinese market, Beijing’s Commerce Ministry said, citing current Sino-American trade tensions as the major reason for the decline in the US share.

“The United States used to be the top car exporter to China, but now Germany has become the leader,” Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said at a press conference. “The import of Japanese and German cars is increasing in the Chinese market, while the import of US cars is declining.”

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According to the minister, trade measures introduced by the White House over recent months have been damaging not only for China, but for the US as well.

“The US trade deficit is increasing not only with China, but with the whole international trade market,” Wang said. “This is why we believe that the trade war complies neither with the Chinese nor with US trade interests.”

Wang stressed that putting an end to the trade war is vital as the only way to resolve the current situation.

Extensive trade tensions between Beijing and Washington started in early July after the world’s two largest economies imposed taxes on mutual imports. The US introduced a 25-percent charge on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods. The Chinese government retaliated by hitting an equal volume of US produce with an import tax of 25 percent. In August, the US imposed taxes on $16 billion worth of China’s exported produce, prompting China to respond with a similar measure.

The conflict entered a new stage last week, as Washington extended the measures by imposing a 10-percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. The new tariffs came into force on Monday with Washington pledging to raise the tax to 25 percent at the end of the year. Earlier, US President Donald Trump threatened China with further tariffs on around $267 billion of imports if Beijing retaliated against the latest step, which it did.

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