China’s surplus with the US reached a record high of nearly $29 billion in June.
The figure comes amid heightened trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies after a series of tit-for-tat duties.
Earlier this week the US threatened to target another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.
The tariffs are expected to have an impact on the figures for July as that’s when the first round of US tariffs took effect targeting $34bn worth of goods.
Chinese exports to the US rose by 13.6% in the first half of 2018 compared to the first six months last year, while imports from the US rose by 11.8% in the same period.
China’s trade surplus with the US in the first six months of the year rose to $133.76 billion.
The data shows a widening trade imbalance between the two countries, with Chinese exports vastly outweighing US imports.
The US has stated that the tariffs are in response to Chinese theft of intellectual property.
However, last month the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the Trump administration’s new import tariffs pose a threat to the world’s trading system.
A trade war would result in “losers on both sides” and could have “serious” impact, said IMF Director Christine Lagarde.
Julian Evans-Pritchard, the senior China economist at Capital Economics in Singapore, was quoted by The Guardian as saying: “Looking ahead, export growth will cool in the coming months as US tariffs start to bite alongside a broader softening in global demand,”
