Given the stop-start nature of the introduction of Donald Trump’s tariffs, it was always going to take some time to see their effects on global trade patterns. China’s trade data for August shows they are just starting to bite.

The data, released this week, showed China’s total exports are still growing, but at a much more subdued pace. Exports to the US, however, are plunging.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and US counterpart Donald Trump. China is seeking to build closer relationships with Russia, India and Latin America to counter-balance US dominance.Credit: AP

In August, exports grew, in dollar terms, 4.4 per cent to $US321.8 billion ($488.1 billion). That was a significantly slower growth rate than July’s, when they rose 7.2 per cent, and about a percentage point below most external forecasts.

Exports to the US nosedived, tumbling 33.1 per cent against those in August last year, while imports from the US were down 16 per cent.

The rapidly shrinking trade with the US isn’t surprising, given that, while the extreme tit-for-tat tariffs the countries imposed on each other’s exports earlier this year were replaced by a US rate of 30 per cent on imports from China and a Chinese rate of 10 per cent on imports from the US, the effective average rate on Chinese shipments to the US is probably above 55 per cent once pre-existing and sectoral tariffs are taken into account.

With the capacity to “front load” exports to the US before the tariffs were in place having waned, and most of Trump’s tariffs now active, their impact on China’s exports (and other countries’ trade data) can be expected to grow.

The end of the “de minimus”........

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