RIYADH — The volume of trade exchange between Saudi Arabia and the US increased by about 15 percent since January 2017 when President Donald Trump assumed office, business daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported on Saturday quoting official US data. During the first quarter of 2017, the trade exchange between the two countries reached $ 9.76 billion (SR36.6 billion) against $ 8.5 billion (SR31.9 billion) during the same period last year with an increase of $1.3 billion (SR4.7 billion). Saudi exports to the US during the first quarter of the year rose by 64 percent to reach $6.18 billion compared to $3.77 billion in the same period last year. The Kingdom's imports from the US decreased by about 24 percent to reach $3.58 billion against $4.72 billion in the first quarter of 2016. The trade balance between the two countries registered a surplus of $2.59 billion compared to a deficit of $953 million the previous year. The trade volume between the two countries from 2007 until 2016 reached SR2.14 trillion ($571.8 billion). The US has controlled about 13.6 percent of the Saudi foreign trade with the world during the last 10 years reaching SR15.75 trillion ($4.2 trillion). The US is one of the largest importers of Saudi oil with a daily average of about a billion barrels at the value of SR74 billion in 2015 while it exported to the Kingdom vehicles at SR13.3 billion annually. The Kingdom's exports to the US during the past 10 years reached SR1.47 trillion ($391.7 billion) against imports of SR675.3 billion ($180.1 billion). The US was the most important trade partner for the Kingdom until 2014 when it gave this position to China.
