China's exports of merchandise declined in July by $3,802 million from June, but since imports declined by $4,435 million, the trade surplus increased $633 million to $10,445 million from $9,812 million in June. The growth of the China's trade surplus over the past few years is evident in the first chart. Most of the surplus is with the United States. Countries other than the United States have, as a whole, run a trade deficit with China as can be seen in the table below.

Only total trade figures are available for July. The latest data on trade by country are for June. In the table below, we show China's total exports, exports to the United States and all other countries, total imports and imports from the United States and all other countries, and the total balance of trade and the balances for the United States and all other countries. While the surplus with the United States is still increasing in the first half of this year, there appears to be a sharp deceleration in the deficit with countries other than the U. S. In 2004 the deficit with these countries was $47,452 million, but in the first half of this year the deficit was only $3,645 million. There has been a decline in exports to these countries but a much greater decline in imports from them has reduced their deficit with China. The second and third charts show exports to and imports from Europe and Japan. The trends in the first half of this year shown in these charts are typical of most of the countries for which data are available.