Trade friction between China and the US continues and leathergoods is one of the product categories to suffer, according to researcher Su Qingyi, writes Leatherbiz.

Mr Su, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of World Economics and Politics in Beijing, has told media in China that the Biden administration has continued to pursue the policies of “near-shore outsourcing” and “ally-outsourcing” that emerged during the Trump administration.

He said that China’s share of the value of all imports into the US stood at 21.1% in 2016, but that by the start of 2023, this had fallen to 15%.

Leathergoods is one of a number of sectors to have “dropped significantly”, he said. He calculated that the value of exports from China to the US of leather bags and other leathergoods has fallen by almost 30% in the last five years.