Title: Introduction - U.S. Trade with China: Selected Resources - Research Guides at Library of Congress
Headings: U.S. Trade with China: Selected Resources
U.S. Trade with China: Selected Resources
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Introduction

Content: Use our online form to ask a librarian for help. Introduction
Hanjin company container ship at port in the Port of Vancouver. Photo courtesy of Joseph Sams. The U.S. trade with China is part of a complex economic relationship. In 1979 the U.S. and China reestablished diplomatic relations and signed a bilateral trade agreement. This gave a start to a rapid growth of trade between the two nations: from $4 billion (exports and imports) that year to over $600 billion in 2017. Until February 2019 China was the largest trade partner of the United States, and currently is in third place after Canada and Mexico while it remains the biggest source of imports. China’s exports to the U.S. over the decades have changed from low-value, labor-intensive products to more capital intensive goods. It is now one of the U.S.’s major suppliers of advanced technology products and global supply chains involving China and the U.S. are complex.