Taiwan's exports to the United States rise 81.8% to $189 billion

One year after President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs, changes in global trade flows have made clearer differences in industrial competitiveness among major economies. Data from a recent BEA analysis show that the value of U.S. goods imports from April 2025 through January 2026 fell by 3.6% from a year earlier, suggesting that access to the world’s largest consumer market has become harder under higher tariffs. However, the impact has not been uniform.

Taiwan stands out as a beneficiary

Taiwan emerged as a clear beneficiary, with exports to the United States rising 81.8% to $189 billion, surpassing Japan and South Korea. The primary driver is Taiwan’s strength in high-tech sectors—areas benefiting most from the AI wave. Taiwanese firms are believed to hold about 90% of the global market share for AI servers and roughly 70% in semiconductor foundry processing.

As a result, Taiwan’s total exports in 2025 rose 34.8%, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Finance. Another factor is that many of Taiwan’s tech goods are not subject to Trump’s tariffs. Combined with close security-economic ties, this helped bilateral trade with the U.S. climb 68.4% in the period from April 2025 to January 2026.

U.S.-China trade declines amid tariff escalation

By contrast, trade between the U.S. and China declined 38% over the same period, driven largely by ongoing tensions, especially after tariffs exceeding 100% were imposed on each other’s goods in April 2025, bringing much of the trade into a stall.

According to Nikkei Asia, after the escalation, the U.S. and China lowered tariffs on each other’s goods and agreed to a trade ceasefire, yet the prior tensions left a lasting impact. Despite pressure from the U.S.-China tariff war, China’s exports still grew last year.

China’s export growth and shift toward ASEAN

China’s total exports rose 5.5% in 2025 to a record $3.77 trillion, with the full-year trade surplus exceeding $1 trillion for the first time. Notably, China’s exports to ASEAN member countries surged, signaling a push to expand demand beyond the U.S.; ASEAN exports to the United States rose 28.9% last year.

Japan’s export performance diverges

Japan’s total exports in the previous year reached a record 110.4 trillion yen (about $691 billion). Exports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and related products rose on AI demand in Asia, while Japan’s shipments to the United States fell 4.1% to $119.5 billion.

An analysis of Japan’s Finance Ministry data shows that car prices fell. The loss of price competition suggests exporters may have cut prices to offset tariff effects, unlike Taiwan where products like AI servers and semiconductors have fewer substitutes and exporters faced less pressure to discount.

North America: Mexico rises, Canada falls

BEA data also show Mexican exports to the U.S. rose 4.3% aided by the USMCA. By comparison, Canada’s exports to the U.S. fell 13.5% as it diversifies.

Scope of the figures

The figures above cover merchandise trade and were recorded before the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Trump’s counter-tariff earlier this year.