BEIJING (AP) - Trade between China and the United States should reach a record $73.5 billion this year, with China racking up yet another enormous trade surplus, the government's Xinhua News Agency said Sunday.
The estimate was based on statistics for the first 10 months of the year, which showed the two countries exchanged goods and services worth $61.3 billion - as much as all of last year, the report said.
That amounted to a 23.4 percent increase from the January-October period last year, the report said.
According to the statistics, the balance of trade still remains overwhelmingly in China's favor.
The United States bought $43.4 billion worth of Chinese-made shoes, clothes, toys and other goods in the first 10 months of this year, up 27 percent from the same period last year.
During the same time, China spent $18 billion on U.S. goods, mainly aircraft, farm products and electronics, 15 percent higher than last year, the report said.
China now appears poised to pass Japan as the country running up the largest trade surpluses with the United States.
Last week, the U.S. Commerce Department announced America's deficit with China rose 4 percent in October to a record $9.1 billion, the biggest U.S. deficit ever with a single country.
Meanwhile, U.S. investment in China grew by $7.3 billion in the first 11 months of this year, bringing total U.S. investments since China opened to the world two decades ago to $59.7 billion, Xinhua said.
That makes the United States the largest foreign investor in China, the report said. But the statistics do not cover Hong Kong or Taiwan, which have invested heavily in China.:
