7 in 10 US businesses foresee boost in trade with China

Moreover, 65% of US businesses expect their trade with China to increase in 2016, up from 55% in 2014 and higher than the global average of 54%, according to recent survey issued by the banking and financial services institution HSBC. Only business leaders in the UAE (71%) and Korea (68%) had higher expectations for increased trade with China.

US exports to China are expected to reach an average of 9% a year in the medium term, while imports from China are expected to grow by an annual average of 7% through 2020. More US businesses are investigating the idea though not as many as some of their global competitors. Close to a fifth of US management teams have had discussions on using the Chinese currency as a potential opportunity or business enabler, in line with their global peers in Australia, Canada, and the UK, though behind senior management teams in Singapore, Malaysia, Germany and the UAE, where about a quarter of teams have done so, and well behind teams in greater Asia.

Additionally, only 10% of US businesses said they had used the Chinese currency to settle cross border trade, compared with the global average of 17%. In fact, 14% of US businesses expect the Chinese currency to be a fully internationally traded currency like the USD or EUR by 2020. Additionally, 35% of Chinese businesses said they are using CNY to settle trade up from 33% in 2014, while 60% of those said they expect the level of their CNY cross-border business to increase in the next 12 months, up from 44% in 2014.

For US businesses that have taken the CNY plunge, small businesses are embracing CNY more than large or middle market companies. 12% of US small businesses said they had used CNY to settle trade in the last 12 months, compared to 9% of large or middle market companies. However, in the future, more large US companies (26%) are planning to use CNY than small businesses (9%).

For its 2015 survey, HSBC polled more than 1,600 decision-makers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, mainland China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the UAE, the UK and the US, who represent companies that conduct international business with or from China.

Check out our Cross-border Ecommerce Research section here for more info on country-specific ecommerce facts and figures, preferred payment methods, risk and fraud, as well as ecommerce legislation and regulation for mature and emerging markets.