Trade data out from the Commerce Department Thursday shows that Americans bought more stuff from abroad in April than in March — more cars and car parts, more cell phones and household goods. But something of note: The share of imported goods from China declined to its lowest level since 2006.
China is a producing powerhouse. Just think of all those ring lights, sweatpants and home gym equipment we desperately craved during the depths of the pandemic. A lot of which, if you’ll recall, got stuck on container ships...
Meanwhile, China’s also been maturing as an economy and shifting its export focus to different and more valuable things, according to Susan Aaronson, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University.
“As countries develop, right, they tend to export more services. And so China had this deliberate plan to move up that value chain,” she said.
So, yes, we’re importing less from China overall and, yes, you might not see the words “Made in China” on as many tags these days — but that’s partly because you can’t sew a label onto software, e-commerce and AI.
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