(ATF) China has lost its spot as the US’ biggest international trading partner to Mexico, which toppled the world’s second-largest economy from a position it had held since May.
Luce Maria de la Mora, Mexico’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said two-way trade between the two countries had increased to $97 billion in the first two months of this year. Interfax reported that Mexico accounted for 14.9% of US import and export trade volume in the two months, followed by China at 14.7% and Canada at 14.3%.
Earlier, the US Census bureau said China was the third-biggest trader with the US in February, with trade valued at $43.44bn. Trade with Mexico reached $48.47bn and Canada came in second with $47.39bn, the data showed.
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In 2019, Mexico surpassed China to become the largest trading partner of the US. But in 2020, the total value of bilateral trade between the US and China was about $586.7bn, $538bn with Mexico.
China is forecast to regain the top spot by the end of this year, but with the Sino-US trade war still raging despite the election of Joe Biden as US president, nothing is certain. Some analysts say that Mexico’s re-emergence as the largest trading partner may be related to the slowing of China’s imports of bulk commodities, such as American oil.
