Wisconsin’s goods exports to China reached a value of $2.2 billion in 2021, the highest recorded to date. Among the many agricultural exports from Wisconsin to China is the prized American Ginseng. Most of the American Ginseng exported to China is grown by small family farms, whose livelihood has been undermined by the trade war. The dairy industry of Wisconsin, along with peers from other states, are seeking growth in China, one of the fastest growing dairy markets in the world. Despite pandemic-related challenges, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection organized the Wisconsin Pavilion at the 2022 China Dairy Expo in China. Chinese companies have also found opportunities in Wisconsin such as the Chinese-owned ND Paper, which is planning further expansion of its mill in Biron while reducing energy consumption. Educational exchanges between Wisconsin and China have flourished in the past decades. In the 2021/2022 school year, an estimated 5,000 Chinese students, many of them at University of Wisconsin’s Madison campus, contributed approximately $150 million to the state’s economy. But political risks are growing. In early 2022, three bills targeting China were introduced in Wisconsin’s legislature all focused on the University of Wisconsin: SB 742, SB 744, and SB 745. All three bills failed to pass in the Assembly. 

In 2021, Wisconsin logged the highest total value for goods exported to China in state history: $2.2 billion. Wisconsin has long enjoyed steady trade with China, with an average of $1.7 billion generated annually from goods exported to China from 2008 through 2017, and with this annual total exceeding $1 billion every year since 2007. This strong record of accomplishment is in part due to the diversification of Wisconsin’s exports to China. Whereas for the Heartland region, the top three categories of goods exported to China together account for 75% of all those states’ exports to China, in Wisconsin the top three categories account for just 40% of all state exports to China. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, service exports from Wisconsin to China fell by 27%.

Wisconsin was fortunate that, because of the diversity in its exports to China and thanks to the state’s strength in sectors such as industrial machinery and scientific instruments, total export revenue stayed high even as agricultural industries were impacted heavily by the trade war. As Wisconsin’s third-largest trading partner, the state ships out a variety of goods; dairy products, corn, soybeans, ginseng, and cranberries are just some of the state’s agricultural goods reliant on the Chinese market. Wisconsin has been shipping ginseng to China for over a century, with over 95% of U.S. ginseng exports coming from Marathon County, and Wisconsin-grown ginseng is considered a luxury product despite foreign competitors making up the majority of the market; however, but the 7.5% tariff China imposed on ginseng imports during the trade war has hurt the industry. China’s oilseed and grain imports from Wisconsin fell to just $74 million in 2018, but rebounded to $474 million in 2021. Wisconsin was hard hit by China’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. dairy in 2019, with export sales in this category dipping to their lowest total in a decade; the industry was also negatively affected by overproduction and plummeting consumption, which resulted in the loss of dairy farms.

In 2021, even with many trade war tariffs still in place, Chinese consumption of U.S. dairy products skyrocketed, with a 940% increase in China’s imports of skim milk powder in the first five months of 2021 relative to the same period in 2019. China is expected to become the largest import market in the world for cheese, and while historically the U.S. has not been a primary supplier, rising demand could bode well for the second-largest dairy-producing state in the U.S. Wisconsin’s top category of exports to China, oilseeds and grains, increased by 32%, benefiting from the recent uptick in Chinese purchasing; however, the state’s second- and third-leading export categories—navigational and measuring instruments and aerospace products and parts—fell by 6% and 1%, respectively.

Wisconsin businesses interested in starting or expanding dairy exports to China were invited to the Wisconsin Pavilion at the 2022 China Dairy Expo in Nanchang. After a two-year pandemic cancellation, the China Lights Wisconsin Festival returned to the Boerner Botanical Gardens in the fall. In early 2022, three bills targeting China were introduced in Wisconsin’s Legislature, all focused on the University of Wisconsin: SB 742 would prohibit admitting or hiring anyone belonging to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, SB 744 would prohibit missions from China to any UW institution, and SB 745 would require disclosure of contracts or gifts from foreign sources. All three bills failed to pass.

China ranks as Wisconsin’s leading place of origin for international students in 2022, with an estimated 4,612 students in attendance. This represents an estimated 5% decrease in enrollment of Chinese students from the 2021 level, and a 15% decrease since 2020.

This data and content is updated periodically. The most recent update was January 2023.