BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th June, 2020) Trade between Russia and China has decreased by 4.3 percent over the first five months of 2020 compared to the same period of the last year and amounted to $40.89 billion, according to data released by China's General Administration of Customs (GACC) on Sunday.
According to the GACC, China's exports to Russia dropped by 7.3 percent between January and May, totaling $16.94 billion, while Russian exports to China fell by 2.1 percent, totaling $23.94 billion.
In May, trade between the countries reached $7.36 billion with China's exports to Russia making up $3.8 billion and Russia's exports to the Asian country totaling $3.56 billion.
In 2019, the flow of goods between China and Russia increased by 3.4 percent to record $110.75 billion, the GACC added.
Meanwhile, trade between the US and China amid the coronavirus pandemic in the first five months of 2020 dropped to $183.61 billion, marking a 12.7-percent decrease compared to the same period last year.
The GACC statistics showed that over the given period, exports from China to the US dropped by 14.3 percent to $137.6 billion and the US exported 7.6 percent fewer products to China, amounting to a total of $46.01 billion.
In May, trade between the world's two largest economies reached $46.54 billion with China's exports to the US reaching $37.22 billion and the US exports to China totaling $9.32 billion.
Amid bilateral trade tensions that emerged months before the pandemic, the trade between the countries in 2019 amounted to $541.22 billion, falling by 14.6 percent compared to 2018.
In general, Chinese exports fell by 7.7 percent in the first five months of 2020 amid the pandemic compared to the same period of 2019, totaling $884.9 billion, and the country's imports dropped by 8.2 percent, totaling $763.6 billion.
According to the GACC, China's foreign trade decreased by 8 percent and made up $1.6 trillion over the given period.
In 2019, Beijing's foreign trade fell by 1 percent and amounted to $4.57 trillion with exports reaching $2.49 trillion, and imports amounting to $2.07 trillion. China's foreign trade balance for 2019 amounted to positive $421.5 billion.
