June 23, 2003 – A new study says China has surpassed Mexico and Japan as the largest supplier of high-tech goods to the US, shipping $35 billion worth of technology products, more than a third of China’s entire technology exports.

According to the report by the American Electronics Association (AeA), US imports of high-tech products totalled $220 billion in 2002, nearly two-thirds of which ($141 million) came from the Asia-Pacific region, including China, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, and the Philippines.

Daniel Brody, who runs AeA’s Beijing office, said that two-thirds of China’s high-tech exports come from foreign-invested companies, many of which are from the US. “They’re all doing processing trade,” he said, such as assembling electronic components into foreign goods.

The study defined high-tech goods as computers and office equipment, consumer electronics, semiconductors, communications and optical gear, and some medical and industrial equipment.