U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, December 2018

I see. Now the whole world is out to get us.
Hmm. Could be true I guess.

 

Since you don't seem interested in facts let me help you with the EU numbers.
US tariffs on EU 2.4%
EU tariffs on US 3.2%
https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/tariff_profiles_list_e.htm
So based on the trade numbers free trade would save the US a whopping 1.5 billion.
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c0003.html
Facts are how we know Trump is full of it when he says he wants free trade.

 

We already know the excuse: The next recession will be AOC's fault.

 

Now go check China's economy and tell us what you would do about them heavily tariffing our good, not allowing us to sell products in China and of course stealing technology with NO consequences?

 

No USA company is forced to do business with China. They do so willingly.
I've know for almost 2 decades Chinese companies took intellectual property of USA companies and so did those companies.
Yet, they continued doing business.
I can only conclude, they still made money and it made business sense for them to continue to do business with China.

 

Eh, Dems have been in power since January. What have Republicans been doing all this time they've had power?

 

Ah so you see the problem, America would love to do equal business with China but can't because either we're not competitive due to high tariffs, won't because of property theft, or can't because they won't allow our products to be purchased there. All the while you want us to drop our tariffs and open our markets without China conceding all or some of the issues I laid out?

 

A wise man once said:
"When there is no probability that any such repeal [of a tariff in a foreign country] can be procured, it seems a bad method of compensating the injury done to certain classes of our people to do another injury ourselves, not only to those classes, but to almost all the other classes of them. "

 

Problem?
Our companies did business with China of their free choice. So they could make greater profits, I assume. Doesn't seem like a problem. Else they would not do business with China.
And I've not made any claim about tariffs or our open markets. I only said our companies continue to do business in China, in spite of those issues. Why do they?

So keep your own words to yourself and don't lie about what others have not said. It makes you look bad.
If we're not competitive, why are we over there doing business? For 20 yrs.

As of today, tariffs on China hasn't produced good results.
Our trade deficit is the highest ever.

 

Just because we do business with them doesn't mean there's not a problem, good grief. The government's job is to protect Americans and American business and without the things I've laid out we would be more competitive in a multitude of other products as well. So I'll ask you again what would you have Trump do? Nothing? Something? If so tell us? Currently all your doing is Trump bad blah blah we do business with China.

 

Somebody doesn't understand the GDP formula.

Weaker yuan, slowing Chinese economic growth?

 

I guess the world is fighting back to protect its surplus with America

But if thry continue to bleed us sooner or later it wii catch up to us and to them

Why liberals other than warren buffett ignore the cronic trade gap is a mystery

Is buffett the only smart lib in captivity?

http://fortune.com/2016/04/29/warren-buffett-foreign-trade/

 

The trade gap, in and of itself, is not a problem. The US is able to export paper currency in exchange for goods and services. The demand for dollars as a reserve currency enables this. The trade deficit becomes an issue when it's a symptom of a larger problem, specifically the offshoring of US economic activity.

 

How is making things worse, trade deficit highest ever, fixing the problem? Good Grief.
For 20 yrs our companies have been doing business, if it is so bad and costing them money, they wouldn't go to china to do business.
My guess is currency exchanges are playing a factor in trade deals.

I don't have an answer, I am not an economist.
But I can read what has happened in the past when our govt when protectionist and put in tariffs. It went bad for all involved.

But maybe Harvard Business Review would have an answer. Even from 30 yrs ago.

Throughout the post-World War II era, the United States has been the world’s staunchest supporter of open trade. With our trade deficit topping $170 billion in 1986, however, it is not surprising that this support for open trade has ebbed and, indeed, turned into outright calls for protectionist measures. One need look no further than this journal for a recent expression of discontent about free trade doctrine.1

A dangerous imbalance between U.S. production and spending since 1981 has produced the mushrooming trade deficit; only a reversal of this imbalance can close the gap. How the United States chooses to accomplish this reversal is perhaps the most important economic policy matter facing our nation in the years just ahead.
https://hbr.org/1987/05/why-protectionism-doesnt-pay

Have we tried this protectionism in the past?
What were the results?
Did economists have suggestions or solutions to the problem that isn't protectionism?

 

THE U.S. TRADE DEFICIT ballooned almost 19 percent in December, widening to the largest monthly gap in a decade and propelling the annual trade gap to the U.S's biggest ever.

The annual trade gap in goods hit $891.3 billion in 2018, and the trade deficit between the U.S. and China rose to a record $419 billion, according to numbers released by the Commerce Department Wednesday.
https://www.usnews.com/news/nationa...03-06/us-trade-deficit-widens-to-record-level

 

I agree

The danger is a hollowing out of our industrial base and the abilty to produce products that we must have.

Its madness to depend on potential enemies for vital goods and services

 

The time to halt this trading of assets for consumables is now, and I have a plan to suggest for getting it done. My remedy may sound gimmicky, and in truth it is a tariff called by another name. But this is a tariff that retains most free-market virtues, neither protecting specific industries nor punishing specific countries nor encouraging trade wars. This plan would increase our exports and might well lead to increased overall world trade. And it would balance our books without there being a significant decline in the value of the dollar, which I believe is otherwise almost certain to occur.

We would achieve this balance by issuing what I will call Import Certificates (ICs) to all U.S. exporters in an amount equal to the dollar value of their exports. Each exporter would, in turn, sell the ICs to parties–either exporters abroad or importers here–wanting to get goods into the U.S. To import $1 million of goods, for example, an importer would need ICs that were the byproduct of $1 million of exports. The inevitable result: trade balance.

So, if Buffet is so smart, why didn't tRUMP take his advice.
I would take what Buffet says over anything tRUMP would think up. In fact, many economists told tRUMP to not go protectionist.

 

Negotiating new and more fair trade deals, ramping up manufacturing, increasing wages and salaries.

 

Do gou agree with buffett?

I do

Trump is at least trying to do something in a town controlled by quislings who dont give a crap how much the trade deficit is hurting the country

 

What "new and fair" trade deals? I'll give you that under Trump the economy has improved, just as it was doing years before Trump took office.

 

And we are negotiating ending them all.

Trump and EU officials agree to work toward 'zero tariff' deal
Trump and Juncker’s remarks represent a step back from potential trade war after weeks of stalemate, but were short of detail

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/25/trump-juncker-trade-war-eu-zero-tariff-deal

Trump And EU Agree To Work Toward Zero Tariffs
In a Rose Garden announcement, Trump said the EU had also agreed to buy U.S. soybeans, a day after he announced a $12 billion bailout package for farmers hit by retaliatory tariffs. Trump said the EU will also become a "massive buyer" of U.S. liquefied natural gas.
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/25/632448563/trump-and-eu-agree-to-work-toward-zero-tariffs



What did the last administration do to make trade more fair and what are the current Dem candidates saying they will do about it.

 

So libs like being a trade footstool for the rest of the world?

Thats not where trump wants us to be

 

The trade deficit hit a ten year high. Where does Trump want us to be, exactly? Is what he's doing on trade working?

 

If the chinese are gutting their prices to boost exports go the US they cannot maointain the effort indefinately

 

The advantage the Chinese have is that they can deal with hardship better than Americans (we're terrible snowflakes), and the Chinese leadership is much, much more immune to political pressure than us. I don't see us winning a protracted trade war.