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China's Got More Competition Now as Info-Tech Exporter to the U.S.

Equipment that can process data faster and in larger volumes is key to innovation and productivity.

China's Got More Competition Now as Info-Tech Exporter to the U.S.
A man carrying a kite in the shape of the Chinese national flag walks along the Bund while buildings of Pudong’s Lujiazui financial district stand across the Huangpu River as the sun rises in Shanghai, China. (Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- China’s still ahead of the pack as a supplier of information technology to the U.S., but the gap is starting to narrow.

Equipment that can process data faster and in larger volumes is key to innovation and productivity. The U.S. has been getting more of it from China than the next eight biggest exporters combined. But the latest data suggests that won’t be the case for long, as the U.S.-China trade war drags on.

Chinese sales to the U.S. in this category fell by $12.4 billion in the first four months of 2019, to an eight-year low of $35.3 billion -- though they’re still three times higher than the second-biggest supplier, Mexico.

Malaysia and Japan also saw a slip in their exports of advanced equipment to the U.S., while the biggest increases came from Vietnam, Taiwan and Korea.

China's Got More Competition Now as Info-Tech Exporter to the U.S.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Tanzi in Washington at atanzi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah McGregor at smcgregor5@bloomberg.net, Ben Holland

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.