Where the U.S. Gets Its Potash From, by Country

Does Your State Trade More With China or the EU?

China and the European Union are two of America’s biggest trading partners, but their influence looks very different from state to state.

This U.S. map highlights which states trade more with China versus the European Union, using 2025 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Only goods trade is included; trade in services is excluded.

A Trade War on Two Fronts

Within months of the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, the U.S. announced sweeping tariffs on dozens of economies, including major trading partners such as China and the EU.

The U.S. initially announced a 34% reciprocal tariff on Chinese goods in April 2025, which was later raised above 100% amid retaliatory measures before being reduced. Against that backdrop, U.S.-China trade fell 29% from the previous year.

The table below lists U.S. states based on whether they traded more with China or the EU in 2025.

Four states shifted to trading more with the EU than China in 2025: Alaska, Illinois, Oregon, and Wyoming. They joined 41 other states and Washington, D.C., in the EU-oriented group.

With Illinois switching sides, every state east of the Mississippi River now trades more with the EU than with China.

How EU Trade Gained Ground

The EU was also subject to the so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs, initially facing a 20% reciprocal tariff. Following negotiations between the U.S. and European Commission, the two sides announced a trade deal in July 2025 that capped most U.S. tariffs on EU goods at 15%.

Over the full year, U.S.-China goods trade declined by more than a quarter, while total EU-U.S. trade increased from 2024.

The states trading the most with the EU were Texas ($114 billion), Indiana ($110 billion), and California ($67 billion). Indiana stands out in particular, with the EU accounting for about half of its goods trade, supported by the state’s large pharmaceutical industry and companies such as Eli Lilly.

The Five States Still Oriented Toward China

Only California, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Washington traded more with China than with the European Union in 2025.

California led by a wide margin, recording more than $86 billion in two-way goods trade with China.

The five states have distinct industries that help explain their trade ties with China. These include California’s port-driven electronics imports, aerospace exports from Washington, and semiconductor production in New Mexico.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To see how transatlantic trade ties are expanding, check out Revitalized U.S. Role in EU Trade since the Mid-2010s on Voronoi.

How U.S.-China Trade Shifted Across the States

U.S. goods trade with China fell 29% in 2025, from $583.6 billion to $414.6 billion, amid a year of sharply higher tariffs and shifting trade flows.

This map shows the change in each state’s goods trade with China from 2024 to 2025, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Trade is the sum of a state’s exports to and imports from mainland China, in current U.S. dollars. Exports are credited to the state where a shipment begins its journey to the port, which is not always where the goods were produced.

Trade With China Fell in 49 of 50 States

The size of the decline varied widely, from 7.6% in North Carolina to 64.3% in Louisiana. Overall, 22 states lost at least a quarter of their goods trade value with China.

The table below ranks all 50 states by the percentage change in their goods trade with China from 2024 to 2025, along with each year’s trade value:

Figures may not sum due to rounding.

Most of the lost dollars came from imports. Nationally, imports from China fell by $132 billion, compared with a $37 billion decline in exports, meaning nearly four-fifths of the decrease in trade value came from lower imports. California and Illinois alone accounted for about half of that import decline.

The steepest percentage drops tell a different story. In Louisiana, Wyoming, and Alaska, the three biggest decliners, trade fell mainly because exports to China dropped.

New Mexico was the lone exception, driven by a surge in electronics exports.

Why New Mexico Went the Other Way

New Mexico’s trade with China rose 27% to $4.9 billion, and a single category explains the gain: exports of electrical machinery and electronics, which include computer chips, climbed 69% to $3.0 billion.

That trade barely existed a few years ago. New Mexico shipped only about $20 million of these goods to China annually in 2022 and 2023, before exports jumped to $1.8 billion in 2024. That same year, Intel opened Fab 9, an advanced chip-packaging plant in Rio Rancho.

The growth also held up through the tariff war. China reportedly exempted some U.S.-made chips from its 125% tariff in April 2025, although it did not publicly confirm the move.

China accounted for 18% of New Mexico’s goods trade in 2025, making it the most China-reliant state.

Louisiana’s Soybean and Fuel Exports to China Collapsed

At the other end of the map, Louisiana lost $7.2 billion in trade with China, and almost all of it came from exports, which fell 71%. Soybean shipments dropped from $5.9 billion to $2.1 billion, while fuel exports fell from $3.2 billion to $0.3 billion.

Both were among the first targets of China’s retaliation. Beijing added tariffs on U.S. coal, LNG, and crude oil in February 2025 and on soybeans in March, before raising its tariff on all U.S. goods to 125% in April. The U.S. shipped virtually no soybeans to China from June through August, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Much of that loss belongs to farmers upriver. Grain from across the Midwest moves down the Mississippi River to export terminals near New Orleans, and Census credits it to Louisiana, where the shipments are consolidated. Louisiana itself harvested 55 million bushels of soybeans in 2024, a fraction of the 474 million bushels it was credited with shipping to China.

As the Census Bureau notes, this methodology can overstate exports from port states and understate them from the states where the goods were produced, meaning the map may understate how hard the trade downturn hit parts of the Farm Belt.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about how tariffs affected the U.S.-China trade relationship, check out this graphic on Voronoi.