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Market Chatter: US-China Summit to Discuss Trade After 30% Decline During Tariff War

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US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet on Thursday to discuss trade, a year after they paused a tariff war.

However, despite the pause, US imports from China plummeted 30% in 2025, according to data from the US Commerce Department.

Of the 19,000 goods tracked in an analysis by Nikkei, it found that for the top 100 goods where Chinese imports declined, 80% of that drop was filled by imports from India, Vietnam, and other countries.

Laptop imports from China fell to 25% of their 2024 levels, with Vietnam absorbing 70% of the decline as imports from the country more than doubled, according to Nikkei on Thursday.

India offset 90% of the decline in Chinese smartphone shipments, largely attributed to Apple moving iPhone production for the US market to India in early 2025, according to the report.

Nikkei said it used Anthropic's Claude artificial intelligence tool in the trade analysis.

(Market Chatter news is derived from conversations with market professionals globally. This information is believed to be from reliable sources but may include rumor and speculation. Accuracy is not guaranteed.)

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