The overall United States trade deficit

[Ransom]

The overall United States trade deficit in goods and services with the world widened 12.1 percent to $566 billion last year, the largest gap since 2008.

We're exporting 566b less that we're importing?

If that is equally distributed amongst nations worldwide.....our recent economic increases and consumer demand might explain that.

The gap between Chinese goods imported to the United States and American goods exported to China rose to $375.2 billion last year, up from $347 billion the prior year.

So.....of that trade deficit of 566B......China is 375B of it?

That's over 66% by my math. China is 66% of our trade deficit.

[Newpublius]

I don't care about the deficit per se, not one wit, I only care to the extent it indicates opportunities deprived which are then deprived to some and provided to others. Free trade with China is great, silly me, I thought that meant I would be allowed to ship there and not have my websites blocked. Free trade for some and 'not' free trade for others, sorry, that nonsense isn't going to work.

[Peter1469]

I am not sure trade deficits matter so much. What matters is whether trade is "free" and fair as Newpublis said. If it were, trade deficits would naturally lower.

[Ransom]

Trade deficits matter, deduct from our GDP...and if they're being created by unfair policies, should be corrected.

[Newpublius]

Trade deficits matter, deduct from our GDP

They do not, they subtract from GDP to prevent double counting them in consumption. For instance, do computers deduct from GDP? Or do they make us infinitely more productive?

Remember, a trade deficit just means the foreigners take dollars and instead of spending it on goods, they spend it on investments, or something else. That's fine....

and if they're being created by unfair policies, should be corrected.

Because the resource allocation is being skewed and badly so I might add and in ways that really make many Americans lives worse off than they otherwise should be.

[Ransom]

They do not, they subtract from GDP to prevent double counting them in consumption. For instance, do computers deduct from GDP? Or do they make us infinitely more productive?

Remember, a trade deficit just means the foreigners take dollars and instead of spending it on goods, they spend it on investments, or something else. That's fine....



Because the resource allocation is being skewed and badly so I might add and in ways that really make many Americans lives worse off than they otherwise should be.

Using a real life example. China imports our vehicles, there is a tariff. Europe imports our vehicles there is a tariff. The US tariff on a European Automobile is like 2.5%. The tariff on US vehicles entering the Euro market is some 4 times that much.....that ain't resource allocation nor helpful to our GDP. Might you check the tariff on our automobiles entering China....I think it might be 10 times our 2.5%

Trump smacks a 10% tariff on BMWs and yer gonna hear trade war talk. Well.......if we're just equaling their tariff and it's a trade war....what is it when their tariff on our vehicles is 4 times as high? Trade War if it's equal.....what do you currently call 2.5 to 10?

[Newpublius]

The tariff on US vehicles entering the Euro market is some 4 times that much

So then they don't buy the car of course, so what do they do with the dollars they earned from selling a Mercedes here?

They do something else with that money of course.

So as you can see you're skewing things, which I agree is detrimental, but even if they didn't skew things and the tariffs were all normalized, you could still have a trade deficit, it simply reflects foreign desire to invest here.

[Ransom]

We may indeed still have the deficits. I can see how tax cuts in a heated US economy would result in an increase in demand for products made in China. Thus increasing that deficit. And my point isn't that trade deficits are necessarily bad. However, we've massive 1.5 billion a day trade deficits. With one particular nation responsible for 2/3rds of that deficit......that tells me there are other factors involved that are coting us GDP, are costing us export growth critical to our economy as well.....that export growth coming from an unreasonable tariff policy abroad. Why the 10% tariff on US autos in Europe as an example?

[waltky]

China still eatin' our lunch...

China's U.S. trade surplus hit record high in August
Sept. 8, 2018 -- China's trade surplus with the United States hit a new record in August as President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on virtually all Chinese goods.​​

The country's trade surplus with the U.S. grew to $31 billion last month from $28.09 billion in July, as its total trade surplus narrowed, General Administration of Customs data showed Saturday. The value of the Chinese yuan has dropped as the trade war with the United States has escalated. "In the short term, it is difficult for the trade gap to narrow because American buyers cannot easily find alternatives to Chinese products," Bank of Communications Economist Liu Xuezhi told the Wall Street Journal.

A Chinese worker loads a truck with wood taken from a closed investment firm in Beijing on Aug. 11. Beijing has tightened controls on trading in its currency to discourage speculators.

The yuan sunk nearly 9 percent against the U.S. dollar from April through July, according to China's Wind Information data. The currency value didn't change much in August as China's central bank intervened to prevent more depreciation. Still, it has been cheaper for U.S. consumers to buy Chinese goods with the weaker yuan. China's exports to the United States rose 13.2 percent in August from a year earlier, accelerating from an 11.2 percent increase in July, the Journal reported based on its calculations from customs data.


Trump said Friday he would slap another $267 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods in a third round of tariffs. This is on top of a second round of tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods the Trump administration is preparing, and $50 billion in tariffs that have already been imposed. The new $267 billion in tariffs would cover the value of all goods the Unites States buys from China, U.S. government data from last year show. The United States imported $505 billion in Chinese products last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-N...9371536420262/