US China Trade Deficit Chart, Manufacturing 1980 to 2023

Key points from the chart

In 2023 the United States ran a manufactured goods trade deficit of $1.22 trillion with the world.
In the same year China had a manufactured goods surplus of $1.81 trillion and the EU a surplus of $0.44 trillion.
As drawn, the US balance in manufactured goods starts close to zero in 1980 and stays below zero from the early 1980s onward.
China’s surplus grows fastest after it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
These are each economy’s balances with the whole world, not with each other. The US deficit with China alone is shown in the second table below.

US China trade deficit chart in text

The title reads “U.S. $1.22 Trillion Manufactured Goods Trade Deficit in 2023 vs. EU $0.44 Trillion Surplus and China’s $1,81 Trillion Surplus”. The chart plots the manufactured goods trade balance in billions of US dollars from 1980 to 2023. China is a red area above zero, the United States a navy area below zero and the EU a blue line, which the chart starts in 2000. The source is the WTO.

The chart prints exact values only for 2023: US -1,220, China +1,810 and EU +440 (billion US$). Read from the shapes, the US deficit is deepest around 2022 and China’s surplus peaks in the same year, before both ease slightly in 2023. Pins along the timeline mark these events.

Year	Annotation on the chart
1980s	Drivers of U.S. manufacturing decline: regional shifts and the “Rust Belt” decline, decline in traditional manufacturing industries, globalization and foreign competition, rise of offshoring
1991	End of Cold War
1994	NAFTA establishment
1995	WTO establishment
2001	China accession to WTO
2008	Global Financial Crisis
2018	The onset of the U.S.-China trade war
2020	COVID-19 pandemic

Econovis summarises the chart this way: the US deficit has followed “a persistent and worsening trend since the 1990s”, the EU has kept “a relatively stable surplus”, and China’s surplus “grew dramatically from 2000 to 2022” [1]. It links the widening US gap to China’s rise as a manufacturing power after joining the WTO [1].

The US trade deficit with China and the EU

Searches for a US China trade deficit chart usually want the bilateral figure, the gap between what the US sells to China and what it buys from it. The US Census Bureau publishes this for goods of all kinds, not only manufactured goods [2][3].

Year	US goods balance with China, US$ billion	US goods balance with the EU, US$ billion
2017	-375.2	-151.6
2018	-418.2	-168.4
2019	-342.6	-177.7
2020	-308.0	-182.6
2021	-352.8	-218.1
2022	-382.3	-202.1
2023	-279.6	-207.7
2024	-297.0	-236.7
2025	-202.7	-220.3

The goods deficit with China was largest in 2018 at $418.2 billion and fell to $202.7 billion in 2025 [2]. The deficit with the EU grew over most of the same period, to $236.7 billion in 2024 [3]. The Census tables are in nominal US dollars and are not seasonally adjusted [2].

What a trade deficit means

The trade balance is exports minus imports, so a deficit means a country buys more from abroad than it sells [5]. Figures in the news usually cover goods only, while trade in services such as software, consulting and tourism is counted separately [5]. The St. Louis Fed’s FRED Blog notes that a trade deficit is not necessarily a sign of a weak economy [5].

On China’s entry to the WTO, the WTO’s Ministerial Conference approved the terms of China’s membership on 10 November 2001, with membership taking effect 30 days after China ratified the agreement [4].

Notes on this infographic

Typo. The title writes “$1,81 Trillion” with a comma. It means $1.81 trillion, as Econovis’s own post confirms [1].
Not bilateral. Despite the title’s framing, the chart compares three separate balances with the world. It does not show trade between the US, China and the EU.
Manufactured goods only. Fuels, services and other goods are excluded, so these figures differ from total trade balances. Econovis has published separate charts for fuels, for all goods and for goods and services together [6].
Annotations show timing, not cause. The pins mark events, but the chart does not measure how much each one changed the balances.

Questions about the US China trade deficit

How big is the US trade deficit with China?

The US goods deficit with China was $202.7 billion in 2025, down from $418.2 billion in 2018, according to the US Census Bureau [2].

Does the US have a trade deficit with the EU?

Yes, in goods. The US goods deficit with the European Union was $220.3 billion in 2025 [3].

How big was China's manufactured goods trade surplus in 2023?

China had a manufactured goods trade surplus of $1.81 trillion with the world in 2023, according to WTO figures charted by Econovis. In the same year the United States ran a manufactured goods deficit of $1.22 trillion and the EU had a surplus of $0.44 trillion. Econovis says China's surplus grew dramatically from 2000 to 2022 [1].

When did China join the World Trade Organization?

The WTO's Ministerial Conference approved the terms of China's membership on 10 November 2001, with membership taking effect 30 days after China ratified the agreement [4]. On the chart, China's manufactured goods surplus grows fastest after it joined in 2001. Econovis links the widening US manufactured goods deficit to China's rise as a manufacturing power after joining the WTO [1].