From USA Today (link):
You’d never know it from all the hand-wringing over the ballooning U.S. trade deficit, but the fastest-growing market for American exports is China.
Sure, there’s plenty of friction in the Sino-U.S. trade relationship: rampant copyright violations, a Chinese currency tilted against U.S. manufacturers and the legacy of state support for favored enterprises. Chinese President Hu Jintao can expect to get an earful today on all of the above when he meets President Bush at the White House.
Despite that, last year’s $41.8 billion in U.S. exports to China represented a 157% increase compared with 2000’s $16.3 billion. Over the five-year period, exports to China grew more than five times as fast as exports to the rest of the world, making China the USA’s No. 4 export market, behind only Mexico, Canada and Japan.
