China to Be Biggest Trading Nation by 2025
By wchung | 25 Mar, 2026

China will account for 13% of world trade by 2025, overtaking the U.S. as the largest trading nation, according to an HSBC report released Tuesday. Its trading growth will be driven both by its ravenous appetite for commodities and continued focus in exports of manufactured goods.

Already China has displaced the U.S. as Brazil’s top trading partner in a trend expected to continue, said Brazil’s Industry and Foreign Trade Minister Miguel Jorge Monday.

China’s growth will be a major factor behind the doubling of Asia’s trade volume by 2025 which will be the main driver of global growth, said the HSBC’s latest quarterly Trade Connections report. China’s total trade will grow from $1.1 trillion in 2010 to over $2 trillion by 2025.

World trade is expected to increase 73% between now and 2025 driven by soaring growth in China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. That growth will be eclipsed by a near doubling (96%) of Asia’s trade volume to nearly $14 trillion by 2025, growing at an annual year-on-year pace of 4.8%. By contrast global trade growth will grow at an estimated 3.8% pace.