Taiwan’s exports to the United States surpassed China’s for the first time in decades in December, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Why It Matters

China remains one of the United States’ largest trading partners, though the U.S. goods trade deficit with China has narrowed in recent years from its 2018 peak as tariffs and supply chain diversification reshaped flows.

Taiwan has climbed rapidly in the rankings, edging Germany to become the U.S.’ fourth-largest trade partner last year on the back of demand for its semiconductor industry, which produces approximately 90 percent of the world’s advanced chips.

Newsweek has reached out to Taiwan’s de facto embassy in the United States by email with a request for comment.

What To Know

U.S. imports from Taiwan reached nearly $24.7 billion in December, a roughly 22 percent increase from November, the Commerce Department data showed.

Imports from China edged up to $21.1 billion during the same month.

In full-year terms, the U.S. goods trade deficit with Taiwan widened to $146.8 billion in 2025—roughly double the previous year. The U.S. deficit with China expanded to $202.1 billion, despite the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump during the ongoing trade dispute.

The report follows a recently announced trade agreement under which U.S. blanket tariffs on Taiwanese goods will be capped at 15 percent.

In exchange, chipmakers—including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest contract chipmaker—pledged to invest upward of a quarter trillion dollars to expand U.S. capacity for advanced semiconductors, clean energy technologies and AI.

Taiwan’s central role in global technology supply chains has buoyed its stock market to record highs and driven economic growth to levels not seen in years.

Taiwan’s annual economic growth nearly doubled to reach 8.63 percent in 2025, according to preliminary estimates from Taiwan’s Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics. Taiwan also edged past Japan in GDP per capita in 2024 and overtook South Korea last year, although average wages in Taiwan still trail those countries.

What People Are Saying

Ma Tie-ying, senior economist at DBS Bank, was quoted by United Daily News as saying: “Unless AI development suddenly shifts direction, this trend is expected to continue.”

Kung Ming-hsin, Taiwan’s minister of economic affairs, said during a January 28 event hosted by the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C.: “In the past, exports to Hong Kong and mainland China accounted for 40 percent, but now it has dropped to only 26 percent. Investment to the U.S. has increased dramatically, and also because of the rise of AI you have seen dramatic and significant changes.”

What Happens Next

Trump has said he will travel to Beijing in April at the invitation of Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The two leaders are expected to expand the modest trade concessions they arrived at during their last face-to-face in South Korea in October.