27 SEP 2026 — Thailand's trade gaps with China and the United States both widened in the first eight months of 2026. Data from the Commerce Ministry's Trade Policy and Strategy Office, released on 25 September, show a deficit of US$62.7 billion with China and a surplus of US$45.5 billion with the United States.
The same kind of product sits at the top of each list.
The totals behind the gaps
The Bangkok Post reports from the office's data that Thailand exported US$266 billion of goods from January to August, up 18.9% on a year earlier, and imported US$304 billion, up 36.1%. Imports grew nearly twice as fast as exports.
That left an overall deficit of US$37.8 billion for the eight months. For all of 2025 the deficit was US$5.31 billion.
The deficit with China rose from US$40.8 billion in the same period of 2025. The surplus with the United States rose from US$31.6 billion.
The same goods on both lists
For August, the office named the top five products behind each gap. Telecom equipment and accessories led both.
On the China side, the rest of the list was industrial machinery and parts, electrical machinery for telecoms, integrated circuits, and radio and television reception apparatus. On the American side it was computers and accessories, computer parts, recording media, and electrical switching and protection equipment.
Read together, the lists describe an assembly economy: components and equipment arrive from China, and finished electronics leave for the United States. Export growth was concentrated in exactly those goods. Computers and parts rose 49.2% over the eight months, telephone equipment 165%, and electrical transformers 37.7%; cars and parts, long a Thai staple, grew 0.3%.
What drove August
Exports reached US$34.6 billion in August, up 24.3%, the 26th straight month of growth, The Nation reports. Shipments to the United States rose 48.7%, to China 15.5%, to Japan 19.6% and to the European Union 23.1%.
Imports rose 25.1% to US$37.1 billion, leaving a monthly deficit of US$2.5 billion. China supplied US$11.2 billion of those imports, up 20.2%.
Natiya Suchinda, deputy director-general of the office, attributed the growth to overseas investment in infrastructure and artificial intelligence, which lifted demand for electronics. Uncertainty over tariffs, she said, pulled imports forward and built up inventories, which could mean fewer orders later.
Two sets of numbers for China
China's own customs data gives a smaller gap. It records US$83.3 billion of exports to Thailand and US$36 billion of imports from it over the same eight months, a Chinese surplus of about US$47.3 billion, the Thai Examiner notes.
The two countries compile their trade data differently, so the figures cannot simply be set against each other. They are different measurements, not conflicting answers.
The outlook
The office projects export growth of at least 8% this year and says a figure near 15% is possible, with updated projections due in November. It expects exports to contract in 2027.
Watch that forecast. Growth built on front-loaded electronics orders can reverse quickly, and the import bill from China, which feeds the same production lines, would not necessarily fall at the same pace.
