After Two Decades, China No Longer Dominates U.S. Cell Phone Imports

Vietnam snapped China’s 24-year streak as the leading U.S. importer in the category that includes cell phones and related hardware in 2025.

At the same time, China dropped below 50% of all imports for just the phones themselves for the first time since 2009. Though barely, it still ranked first. The last time it didn’t rank first in this more specific category was 21 years ago.

It all ties back to President Trump’s trade war with China, which began in 2018 and has continued into his second term. While it has had no appreciable impact on the overall U.S. trade deficit, which set a record in 2025, it has been enormously disruptive.

China dropped from being the top U.S. trade partner to a distant third, finishing with less than 10% of all U.S. trade in 2025 for the first time as far back as my data goes, at least three decades.

U.S. imports of cell phones, computers, furniture and other products from China have diminished as have a number of U.S. exports to China, including oil and, most prominently, soybeans. The U.S. deficit with China is half what it was at its peak.

Cell phones are a prime example of the shift.

In 2025, China’s percentage of U.S. cell phone imports dropped to 45.21%, a steep decline from 2024, when it accounted for 81.09%, according to my analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau data.

In fact, China almost lost that crown as well as the one for cell phones and related equipment, the broader category. That 45.21% was only slightly larger than the percentage for India, at 42.25%. Vietnam was third in the category that includes just the phones themselves, at 11.25%.

India’s percentage gain has been meteoric the last four years, and particularly since 2024. In 2021, it accounted for just 0.49% of all cell phone imports into the United States. By 2024, that percentage had jumped to 13.58%. The gain to the 2025 percentage of 42.25% was a jump from $6.92 billion to $21.98 billion.

The supply chain, in this case, has proven to be remarkably resilient.

About one-half of those cell phone units are Apple’s, which shifted some China manufacturing to escape the U.S. tariffs. The United States also imports Samsung and Motorola cell phones from India.

The reason that the 2025 cell phone total for imports from China, at $23.52 billion, was only slightly greater than the total for India was a steep decline, from the 2024 total of $41.32 billion. China’s total in 2022, before India began its rapid growth, had been even greater, a record-setting $50.30 billion.

As it turned out, 2022 was the high-water mark for all U.S. cell phone imports. The total value has dropped from $65.11 billion in 2022 to $52.02 billion in 2025. What that means is that China is getting a smaller piece of a smaller pie.

When it comes to the broader category, which includes hardware for cellular networks, China had ranked first since 2021, the year it entered the World Trade Organization. Its 21.25% total for 2025 was the lowest total since 2003. China dominated this category from 2013 through 2018, when it accounted for more than 60% of all imports. It accounted for a majority from 2012 to 2022.

Vietnam captured the top spot with a relatively slow and steady increase, beginning in 2015, when its percentage of U.S. imports in this category doubled to 4.09%. By 2019, its market share stood at 13.88%. From there, the changes have been more gradual, to the 21.68% total in 2025.

Trump’s tariff campaign accelerated a shift that was already underway, but the scale of the change suggests something bigger than diversion: Production is being redistributed, not simply displaced. China is still central, but it is no longer the indispensable hub it once was, with Vietnam and India claiming a growing share of that role.