VINACHEM

Chinese exports to the U.S. contracted 33.1 percent in August to $31.6 billion worth of goods as tariffs have continued to cut into trade between the countries.

Total exports out of China saw a 4.4 percent annual increase to $321.8 billion, down from a 7.2 percent jump in July and marking the lowest export growth since February, according to data from China’s General Administration of Customs released Monday. The total also failed to live up to 5 percent growth estimated by Reuters-polled economists.

Despite the overall trade shifts since President Donald Trump began ramping up tariffs worldwide, the U.S. remains China’s largest trading partner, with the countries trading $42.9 billion in total goods in August.

Tariffs haven’t been the only Trump-era trade policy upending movement of goods to the U.S.

With the de minimis exemption now closed off for low-value parcels from all countries, U.S.-bound shipments without ties to China are seeing a much steeper decline.

According to data from the United Nations’ Universal Postal Union (UPU), postal traffic to the U.S. plummeted 81 percent from Aug. 22 to Aug. 29—the day the duty-free de minimis trade exemption was closed.

As of Friday, 88 postal operators informed the UPU they have suspended some or all postal services to the U.S. until a solution is implemented. Major carriers worldwide including DHL parent Deutsch Post, Correos de Mexico and France’s La Poste are among the carriers that had decided to halt shipments to the U.S., blaming a lack of clarity provided by customs officials on the new guidelines. The parties were also concerned that certain technical details had been given only two weeks before the Aug. 29 deadline.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has since approved 12 businesses to collect and pay duties for the former de minimis-eligible packages. Businesses like Flexport, Zonos and SafePackage have since enabled select international postal carriers like U.K.’s Royal Mail, Canada Post and Ukraine’s Ukrposta to deliver service to the U.S., but the UPU noted that many operators “had not yet established a link” to the list of CBP-qualified parties.

The UPU is also working to flow international postal traffic back to the U.S., debuting a landed-cost calculator API for retailers and other customers. The solution enables posts to calculate and collect the required duties from customers at origin.

Additionally, the UPU is integrating a Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) solution within its Customs Declaration System (CDS) platform, which will be gradually rolled out to 176 postal operators using the platform.

As the international postal holdup persists, the U.S. still has to finalize a trade deal with China after the countries agreed to extend their tariff truce by another 90 days on Aug. 11. This locked U.S. tariffs of 55 percent on Chinese imports in place through early November, with Chinese duties on U.S. goods reaching 30 percent.

“With the temporary boost from the U.S.-China trade truce fading and the U.S. raising tariffs on shipments rerouted via other countries, exports are likely to come under pressure in the near term,” said Zichun Huang, a China-focused economist at Capital Economics in a note Monday morning.

But despite the slowed global export growth, other markets including the 10-country the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the European Union, India and Africa continue to be beneficiaries of the tariff-driven collapse in U.S.-bound shipments.

Exports to ASEAN increased 22.5 percent to $57.1 billion, with top market Vietnam seeing a 31 percent jump in goods from China throughout August, or $17.6 billion in total goods. Shipments to Thailand boosted 25 percent to $8.5 billion, while Singapore saw a 33 percent jump to $7.9 billion.

China has increasingly relied on these markets to route shipments to third countries, with the White House accusing the country of deliberately using them as transshipment hubs to circumvent U.S. tariffs. In response, the framework for the U.S. trade deal with Vietnam included a 40 percent tariff on transshipments.

Elsewhere, E.U. countries saw Chinese shipments to its 27 member states accelerate 10.4 percent to $51.7 billion, while exports to India increased 9.1 percent to $12.5 billion. Africa-bound exports from China surged 25.9 percent to $18.6 billion.

As China’s Golden Week approaches at the start of October, demand for ocean cargo on the trans-Pacific trade lane is not projected to see a significant increase, according to a Thursday update from Flexport.

“Blank sailings may increase as Golden Week draws closer,” the update read. “Carriers are unlikely to announce any capacity reductions until very close to the scheduled departure date, which may cause shipping schedules to slide.”

The Premier Alliance of Ocean Network Express (ONE), Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) and Yang Ming are one such vessel-sharing group that is suspending one of its service lines on the trade lane. The ocean carriers are temporarily scrapping the Pacific South Loop 5 (PS5) service that travels from Qingdao, China to Long Beach, Calif., in a sign that bookings on the Asia-to-U.S. voyage are weaker than normal ahead of Golden Week.