A view of the Port of Los Angeles in the US Photo: VCG

The WTO held its second annual meeting of the Council for Trade in Services on June 13 in Geneva, Switzerland. During the meeting, the Chinese delegation criticized the US' narrative of "reciprocal tariffs" as misleading and based on flawed logic. China urged the US to truly adhere to WTO rules, resolve differences through multilateral cooperation rather than unilateral actions, and work with all parties to safeguard the stability of the global trade system. The Chinese representative pointed out that the US narrative focuses solely on goods trade "deficits" while ignoring the services trade gains - obviously one-sided and misleading, the Xinhua News Agency reported on June 14.

In recent times, some American politicians and media outlets have deliberately exaggerated the US' trade deficit with China, claiming that the US suffers losses in international trade. These narratives attempt to justify Washington's efforts to escalate economic and trade tensions with China. This distorted "loss narrative" not only fails to address the structural problems of the US economy but also serves as a prominent disruption in current China-US trade relations. Breaking free from this zero-sum mindset is key to understanding the mutually beneficial nature of China-US trade and promoting stable, healthy, and sustainable bilateral economic cooperation.

Facts have shown that China and the US gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. Economic and trade cooperation between China and the US is a natural choice for mutual benefit. Overall, cooperation is the main trend in bilateral trade. According to UN statistics, in 2024, China-US bilateral goods trade reached $688.28 billion, which was 275 times the volume of trade in 1979, when diplomatic relations were established between the two countries, and more than eight times the volume of the trade in 2001, when China joined the WTO. The sustained growth in goods trade demonstrates the broad common interests and cooperation potential between the two countries. If one side were truly at a long-term disadvantage, such trade would hardly have continued to grow.

Proponents of the US "loss narrative" often point to the goods trade deficit with China. However, relying solely on the goods trade deficit to claim the US is at a loss is overly simplistic and incorrect. This flawed conclusion ignores several key points.

First, the US goods trade deficit with China stems from the structural issues of the US economy and the global division of labor, so the blame should not be placed on China.

Second, China is an important export market for US goods, and US exports to China have grown significantly faster than its global exports. According to UN statistics, in 2024, US goods exports to China reached $143.55 billion, representing a 648.4 percent increase from $19.18 billion in 2001, which far exceeded its overall export growth of 183.1 percent during the same period. UN data also showed that in 2024, China was the destination for 51.7 percent of US soybean exports, 29.7 percent of its cotton exports, 17.2 percent of its integrated circuit exports, 10.7 percent of its coal exports, 10 percent of its liquefied petroleum gas exports, 9.4 percent of its medical equipment exports, and 8.3 percent of its passenger motor vehicle exports.

Third, the US has long enjoyed a services trade surplus with China. According to the US Department of Commerce, from 2001 to 2023, the US annual service trade surplus with China expanded 11.5 times to $26.57 billion. In 2023, China continued to be the biggest contributor to the US service trade surplus, representing roughly 9.5 percent of the total. With China's continuous economic development and rising living standards, demand for services continues to expand. Between 2001 and 2023, two-way trade in services between China and the US expanded from $8.95 billion to $66.86 billion, representing a seven-fold increase. China is expected to remain a key market for US services exports in the future.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala recently wrote an article titled "America's Big Trade Win," which pointed out a crucial fact: the US is not only a beneficiary of the global trade system, but it also holds a dominant position in services trade - running a services trade surplus with most major economies and generating millions of good jobs for American workers. What the WTO Director-General highlighted is in many ways equally applicable to China-US trade relations.

Fourth, after decades of international cooperation and trade, China and the US have established deeply integrated and highly complementary economic and trade relations. In today's globalized world, China-US bilateral trade has expanded well beyond the realm of goods. According to China's April white paper on the China-US economic and trade relations, when considering goods trade, services trade, and the local sales revenue of each country's enterprises operating in the other country, the overall benefits from bilateral economic exchanges are generally balanced.

The essence of China-US economic and trade relations is mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. Through bilateral economic cooperation, both countries can leverage their comparative advantages, and trade and investment between them are complementary in nature. Making full use of these advantages and strengthening cooperation helps improve economic efficiency and bring greater economic welfare to both societies.

However, in recent years, the US has increasingly embraced unilateralism and economic hegemony, pushing for "small yard, high fence" and "decoupling and breaking supply chains." This year, the US has repeatedly wielded tariffs as a weapon and continuously provoked trade friction. The narrative promoted by some US politicians and media that the US is "suffering losses" in trade with China has further distorted perceptions and fueled irrational behavior. Escaping this false narrative is essential to seeing the true nature of China-US economic exchange.

The author is a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy, Tsinghua University. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn