Think of it as another battle in the long war between spin doctors of trade. On one side, the supporters of stronger trade relations with China cite a recent report that U.S. exports to China grew 301 percent in nominal value between 2000 and 2007, compared with only 44 percent growth to the rest of the world. On the other side, the long-standing critics of China remained unimpressed.

The report, published by the US-China Business Council, highlights Commerce Department and U.S. International Trade Commission statistics showing that U.S. exports to China were $65.2 billion in 2007, up 18.1 percent from 2006. Last year, China displaced Japan as the third-largest market for U.S. exports, surpassed only by Canada and Mexico. That makes China the largest market for U.S. exports that are not covered by a free-trade agreement.

Many consumers jump to the wrong conclusion when they see so many made-in-China labels on their retail shelves, said Erin Ennis, the council’s vice president. That doesn’t mean U.S. products can’t compete in China. The U.S. is highly competitive at home and in China, in many kinds of products that are unfamiliar to consumers. “The U.S. exports chemicals, heavy machinery, electronics and other goods (to China and elsewhere) that Americans never see on their shelves,” Ennis said.

There are several reasons for the growth in U.S. exports. They include the rising affluence of China’s middle class, which covets U.S. consumer goods; the enormous growth in Chinese infrastructure projects, which creates demand for U.S. heavy equipment; and the gradual rise of the Chinese currency, the yuan. “U.S. companies are looking for opportunities where the cheaper dollar makes them more competitive,” she said.

Since the yuan was allowed to float upward in 2005, it has gained about 16 percent.

That’s not nearly enough for John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers. Engler said the group was “very disappointed” by the Treasury Department’s failure to cite China for currency manipulation in its semiannual report to Congress last month.

“The Chinese yuan has been significantly undervalued as a result of actions taken by the Chinese government for many years,” Engler said in a statement. “Chinese officials have been very clear that their intent in maintaining an undervalued yuan is to retain export competitiveness.”

Engler said that by declining to cite China for currency manipulation, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson “again missed an important opportunity to apply leverage within the international rules that have been established and to which China agreed.”

Although U.S. exports to China are up, U.S. imports from China are growing even faster, soaring to $321.5 billion. That resulted in a trade deficit of $256.3 billion, up from $232.6 billion in 2006. So while U.S. exports grew by $10 billion in 2007, U.S. imports from China grew by nearly $34 billion.

U.S. containerized exports to China last year rose 5 percent to 1,945,335 TEUs, according to PIERS Global Intelligence Solutions, a sister company of Shipping Digest. Imports from China rose 3.9 percent to 9.3 million TEUs.

PIERS is projecting a much bigger increase in exports this year, with traffic expected to rise 14.8 percent, lifting the total to more than 2.5 million TEUs.

Imports are projected to grow 2.4 percent this year to 9.6 million TEUs, leaving a ratio of nearly 4 import TEUs for every export box.

The disparity in value terms is far greater because Chinese exports are primarily manufactured goods such as apparel, toys and electronics, while U.S. containerized exports are dominated by low-value goods such as wastepaper, scrap metal and resins.

America Chung Nam Inc., an exporter of wastepaper, consistently ranks as the top U.S. containerized exporter. Last year it shipped 211,300 TEUs, all of it to a Chinese sister company, Nine Dragons Paper Industries Co., according to The Journal of Commerce list of Top 100 Importers and Exporters. The list was published in the May 26 issue of the JoC, a sister publication of Shipping Digest.

High-value U.S. exports such as scientific instruments and sophisticated electronics are shipped by air.