WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — China has outstripped the United States in the volume of its goods trade with the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nations, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said.
"China has surpassed the United States in goods trade with… ASEAN countries and trades a similar amount of services," the report, issued on Thursday, stated. "In 2014, China's total goods trade of $480 billion was more than twice the US total goods trade of $220 billion."
However, from 2007 through 2012, US foreign direct investment flows to ASEAN countries of $96 billion exceeded China's reported $23 billion.
"From 2009 through 2014, US agencies provided approximately $6 billion in financing for US firms in ASEAN countries," the report noted. "China reports billions of dollars more in financing than the United States worldwide, but data on China's financing in Southeast Asia are unavailable."
The ten ASEAN nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, Thailand, Laos and the Philippines have a combined population of 600 million and are one of the fastest growing economic regions in the world.
The US Government Accountability Office is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.
