Calculation methods cause disparity

Trade experts and government officials have urged for updated methods to calculate trade from the perspective of the global value chain, which analyze the value added by a country in the production process.

Amid escalating China-US trade tensions, they said conventional measurement of trade - recording gross flows of products each time they cross borders - is a primary cause of China's stubbornly high trade surplus with the US.

The Sino-US trade surplus between 2010 and 2013, if calculated by trade in added value, would have been 48 to 56 percent lower than the figure calculated by the traditional method, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.