China was the second-biggest source of imported goods in the United States last year on a customs-cleared basis, losing the top spot it had held since 2008 to Mexico, official trade data showed Wednesday.
The change in ranking provided further evidence of the United States' reduced economic reliance on China, although the administration of President Joe Biden has reiterated it has no intention of decoupling from the Asian power.
In 2023, goods exported from China to the United States dropped 20.3 percent from a year earlier to $427.23 billion, accounting for 13.9 percent of total imports, according to the non-seasonally adjusted trade balance data released by the Commerce Department.
In contrast, U.S. imports from Mexico increased 4.6 percent from 2022 to $475.61 billion, making up 15.4 percent of the total.
China, which accounted for over 20 percent of the total between 2015 and 2018 in terms of trade value, was last year followed by Canada at 13.7 percent, Germany at 5.2 percent and Japan at 4.8 percent.
Regarding China as a geopolitical rival, the Biden administration has imposed a series of restrictions on trade with the world's second-largest economy on national security grounds.
China's share of U.S. imports has steadily declined since Biden's predecessor Donald Trump rolled out multiple rounds of tariffs on Chinese goods.
The data showed the U.S. trade deficit with China last year hit its lowest level since 2010, falling 26.9 percent to $279.42 billion, in tandem with a decline in imports from the country driven in part by the realignment of global supply chains following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic, which caused shortages of semiconductors and other key industrial products, accelerated supply chain diversification away from China and advanced "friendshoring" pushed by the United States to deepen economic ties among allies and trusted countries.
