Trade between Moscow and Beijing has grown each month in 2018. The trend has continued amid growing trade tensions between China and the United States.

Through July, Russia and China traded goods worth $58.35 billion, which is more than a 25-percent increase in annual terms, according to Chinese customs data. The volume of exports from China to Russia for this period increased by 16.6 percent to $26.9 billion. China bought $31.45 billion worth of Russian goods, representing growth of 34.9 percent.

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The countries expect that trade will exceed the $100-billion mark this year. In 2017, bilateral trade amounted to $84.1 billion, up by 19 percent from the year before. Russia and China have set a goal to increase bilateral trade to $200 billion annually.

Chinese exports to other countries are also on the rise despite trade tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. China’s trade surplus with the US remains near record highs, shrinking slightly to $28.09 billion last month from a record $28.97 billion in June.

China’s exports for July rose by 12.2 percent year-on-year despite Washington’s announcement that it would begin collecting 25-percent tariffs on another $16 billion in Chinese goods from August 23.

Chinese media continue to bash Washington for aggressive trade measures.

“Certain people go against the tide for their own private ends and go against morality; the barrier of tariffs wantonly rises, and the stick of hegemony is raised all around,” Xinhua news agency wrote recently.

“Although this may for a moment bring preening with delight, it will make it hard to resolve economic imbalances or out-of-kilter politics and other deep-rooted problems,” it added.

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