How much has the coronavirus pandemic and government lockdowns hurt U.S.-China trade?
With January 2020's 'Phase 1' trade deal, the volume of trade between the U.S. and China should have begun recovering in February 2020 following President Trump's trade war with China. Instead, it plunged through March 2020 with the coronavirus pandemic starting in China before beginning to recover. In February 2021, that recovery is well underway with the volume of trade is $13.8 billion higher than February 2020.
The gap between the trailing year average of trade between the two nations and a 'No Coronavirus Pandemic' counterfactual shrunk to $9.2 billion in February 2021. We estimate the cumulative loss of trade between the U.S. and China totals $101.5 billion through its first anniversary.
References
U.S. Census Bureau. Trade in Goods with China. Accessed 10 April 2021.