The US trade deficit continued to shrink in February, fueled by falling imports from China as that country struggled with the coronavirus outbreak, the government reported Thursday. Mexico's population (128,649,565) is less than one-tenth that size, and Canada's (37,694,085) is about one-thirty-seventh that size. Monthly, we upload more than 10 million pages and page views of Census data at ustradenumbers.com, on hundreds of airports, seaports, countries, and export and import commodities. America's next-largest merchandise trade deficit last year was with our top trading partner, Mexico. "President Bill Clinton and China's then-leader Jiang Zemin both came to see benefits in expanding bilateral economic ties, including working together to bring China into the WTO (World Trade Organization)," explains the Congressional Research Service. Goods exports totaled $106.4 billion; goods imports totaled $451.7 billion. America's $345.6 billion trade deficit with China was more than 12 times the trade deficit with Canada. What is the United States buying from China? Annual Trade Deficit. While declarations like these are inherently political, the size of the trade deficit actually depends on whose official customs data is used. China, meanwhile, has by far the world's largest population (1,394,015,977). It’s because imports from Taiwan increased 76.82% and those from Indonesia increased 183.25%. The U.S. trade deficit with China was $315.1 billion in 2012, rose to $367.3 billion by 2015 before dropping to $346.8 billion the next year. For 2019, it was only marginally lower at $345bn. 2019 is the key year. The difference between those two numbers – $419.2bn – is the trade deficit. You might hear that U.S. exports to China are way down this year. The powerful U.S. economy sucks up goods from around the world, resulting in an annual trade deficit that has grown dramatically from a mere $6 … I didn’t leave the womb thinking I would find my life’s work writing and speaking about trade data, trying to make it interesting and relevant. USA : Here is a table I created to show the total debt, real GDP, fiscal deficit and the Debt/GDP ratio of the United States over the last few years. In 2019, the value of … U.S. Trade Deficit with China From 2009 to 2018. In 1985, the first year reported by the Census Bureau, the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with China was $6 million. During 2019, America’s largest trade deficit was with China at $345.6 billion, up from just $18 billion in 1992. With the ongoing trade war, both the U.S. and China are levying tariffs on imports of each other's products. In theory, those costs would be passed along to the end consumer. In 2019, according to the Census Bureau, the top six imports American consumers purchased from China were "cell phones and other household goods" ($64.5 billion); "computers" ($42.3 billion); "toys, games, and sporting goods" ($26.5 billion); "apparel, textiles, nonwool or cotton" ($24.4 billion); "telecommunications equipment" ($24.4 billion)" and "computer accessories" ($18.7 billion). The result: The United States ran a $345.6 billion merchandise trade deficit with China. For U.S. consumers, this means that certain products manufactured in China are now more expensive to buy. Over the past ten years, the US has run an annual trade deficit with China that's hovered between $200bn and $300bn. Published by Yihan Ma, Dec 17, 2020 This statistic shows the United States goods trade deficit with China from 2013 to 2019. Despite having much smaller economies and populations than China, both Mexico and Canada managed to buy far more American-made goods than China did. Townhall.com is the leading source for conservative news and political commentary and analysis. America ought to deliver a very simple message to the authoritarians in Beijing: As long as you are not a free country, you will not be able to freely sell your products here. The US global merchandise trade and current account deficits hit annual rates of $900 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005, which amounted to 7 percent of US GDP, twice the previous record of the mid-1980s (as a result of which the dollar declined by 50 percent over the three-year period 1985-87). It has not. At the height of the U.S.-China trade war last year, Washington slapped tariffs on billions worth of Chinese goods, including consumer products, leading to a decline in imports. © 2020 Forbes Media LLC. Of the approximately $558.9 billion in goods traded between the United States and China last year, only $106.6 billion were exported by the United States, while $452.2 billion were imported. The only way to to eliminate the deficit is for U.S. consumers and businesses to stop buying so much, which would lead to catastrophic results on the economy. The politically sensitive deficit in the trade of goods with China fell 6.7% to $26.4 billion. Through the full twelve months of 2019, the United States ran a $345,204,200,000 merchandise trade deficit with the People’s Republic of China. USA’s trade deficit with China was $201.6 billion in 2005, an all-time high for a trade deficit with any country. Wishing a Merry Christmas Is White Supremacy, The FBI's Latest Homegrown Terrorist Plot Is an Obvious Joke but What Is Going to Happen to the People Involved Is Not, Authorities identify person of interest in Nashville bombing, CCPA - Do not sell my personal information, US has Run Up $5.5 Trillion in Trade Deficits With China. Similarly, even though China has a GDP that is about 14 times larger than Canada's and a population that is about 37 times larger, Canada purchased about 2.7 times the American-made goods ($292.7 billion) that China did in 2019 ($106.6 billion). But this is where I find. 106-286, granting China permanent normal trade relations and paving the way for China to join the WTO, which it did in December 2001," says the Congressional Research Service. I serve on the Federal Reserve’s Trade and Transportation Advisory Council. It is not. 2009: $227B 2010: $273B 2011: $295B 2012: $315B 2013: $318B 2014: $344B 2015: $367B 2016: $347B 2017: $375B 2018: $420B. But this authoritarian state run by the Communist Party provided the labor to produce tens of billions of dollars in cell phones and computers that were sold last year in the United States of America. is provided to you, A Christmas Message for President Trump: You Must Win Now. You might hear that China is paying billions in tariffs. No, the real way to win is to educate Americans about why merchandise trade deficits matter far less than they think, particularly as the world increasingly becomes driven by trade in services. The next year, the U.S.-China trade deficit jumped to $103 billion. That is, if they get past Hunter Biden’s laptop and President Trump’s Chinese bank account. In the last year or so, I have spoken about trade in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Laredo, Miami and Chicago. The United States ran only a $27 billion trade deficit in 2019 with our other neighbor and second-largest trading partner, Canada. All Rights Reserved. Interestingly, the value of this deficit itself is disputed by the Chinese. I hope to provide some easy-to-digest data on the two biggest economies in the world, the increase in fiscal deficits as of 2020 and a quick overview of the trade deficit between USA and China. Explain some possible causes of a balance of trade deficit and consider if the USA should be concerned over its trade deficit with China. America also runs a steep deficit with Germany, Japan, Ireland, and Vietnam. Among the seven nations that were our leading trading partners as of 2019, the second-largest cumulative deficit over that 35-year period was the $2,240,119,400,000 deficit the United States ran with Japan. They are not. I don’t expect you to fawn over it like I do, but I hope I bring a little clarity, a different perspective or some insights that are helpful. In the beginning of August, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he … Two decades of analyzing trade data and how policy affects it, publishing annual port-based publications, producing weekly videos, speaking nationally and hosting events. But this is where I find myself. 1. Don’t expect any progress on that tonight, in the last debate before the Nov. 3 election. The United States normalized relations with China in 1979 but did not grant China permanent normal trade relations until more than 20 years later. The result was a $163,336,900,000 merchandise trade deficit. The US trade deficit with Mexico was $27.2 billion in the first quarter of 2020. But it’s also possible that importers are covering those higher costs by applying pressure in the downstream supply chain, whether on the logistics companies or the manufacturers themselves. U.S. exports are down a measly 0.61% this year, while overall U.S. exports are off a far more onerous 16.13%. But that deficit was only $101.8 billion -- less than one-third the $345.6 billion deficit with China. Going as far back as 1997 – the Chinese claimed that US merchandise trade figures were “largely exaggerated”. But overall U.S. imports fell less, down 15.69%. Can geographical proximity explain all of that disparity? In 2019, China posted a trade surplus of USD 421.9 billion, the biggest since 2016, as exports increased 0.5 percent and imports fell 2.7 percent on weak domestic demand and trade tensions with the US. I didn’t leave the womb thinking I would find my life’s work writing and speaking about trade data, trying to make it interesting and relevant. They have proven remarkably resilient, overall, in the face of the global pandemic. By 2005, it was $202 billion. Look no further than color TV imports to better understand why the U.S. deficit with China is down but the overall deficit has run hot during the Trump Presidency. The State Department's 2019 report on human rights in China begins with these words: "The People's Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the paramount authority. The U.S. Census Bureau's foreign trade data shows that in 2018 China exported $380 billion more in goods and services to the United States than it imported from the United Sates. The United States imported $539.5 billion worth of goods from China in 2018, compared with $505.5 billion in 2017. But supply chains are proving to be remarkably nimble, and not just due to the U.S.-China trade war. That was by far the largest trade deficit the United States ran with any nation last year. Taming the trade war, it turns out, is a little like playing whack-a-mole. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. If only trade in goods is considered, the imbalance is a deficit of $419 billion with U.S. exporting $120 billion in goods and importing $539 billion of goods. Tonight, during the last debate before the Nov. 3 election between Trump and former Vice President Biden, you are likely to hear a whopper or two about U.S. trade with China, trade deficits and tariffs. In 2019, America's seven top trading partners -- when measured by the total dollar value of the bilateral trade in goods -- were Mexico ($614.5 billion), Canada ($612.4 billion), China ($558.9 billion), Japan ($218.3 billion), Germany ($187.8 billion), South Korea ($134.4 billion) and the United Kingdom ($132.3 billion). You might hear that the U.S. deficit with China is increasing. By 2018, it had increased to $418.9 billion, before falling to $345.2 billion in 2019. Imports from China have tumbled in 2019 during a trade war with the U.S. Notice that Trump reduced the trade deficit with China from $418.95 billion to $345.2 billion. The only other time the United States trade deficit topped $500 billion three years in a row through August was in 2006, 2007 and 2008 — right before the … It is not. Copyright © Townhall.com/Salem Media. "On October 10, 2000, Clinton signed into law P.L. The only other time the United States trade deficit topped $500 billion three years in a row through August was in 2006, 2007 and 2008 — right before the global economic crisis. You Can't Win in 2024, New Study Shows Mask Mandates Had Zero Effect in Florida or Nationwide, But the Lie Continues, Here's What New York Democrat Party Boss Thinks of an AOC Primary Challenge Against Chuck Schumer, Why This 2A Supporter Isn’t Crossing The Rubicon…Yet, SpaceX Says Its Taxpayer-Funded Explosion Was a Success, Chad Felix Greene and others are skeptical of Kamala Harris' childhood memories of Kwanzaa, Why Sidney Powell Has Not Heard From Trump Lately, Quick Compelling Bible Study Vol. Trade deficit The US imported a record $539.5bn in goods from China in 2018 and sold the Chinese $120.3bn in return. The trade deficit with China — the gap between what America exports to China and what it imports — fell sharply between 2018 and 2019 as Mr. Trump’s trade … The U.S. monthly trade deficit increased by 1.7% to $63.1 billion in October 2020. The cumulative trade deficits with Mexico ($1,276,017,400,000), Germany ($1,222,887,800,000), Canada ($1,065,139,400,000), South Korea ($410,304,300,000) and the United Kingdom ($33,598,300,000) were much smaller. If we are trying to win the war against the U.S. trade deficit with the world, anything resembling a unilateral approach just won’t work. The Commerce Department report on imports and exports was compiled before the worst of the virus's economic disruptions hit the United States, where many businesses have since been forced to close causing … EY & Citi On The Importance Of Resilience And Innovation, Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit — And Pushing For Change, Michigan Economic Development Corporation With Forbes Insights, Georgia Senate Candidates Need To Address Taxes, Pope Francis’s Apostolic Letter On St. Joseph Makes Good Christmas Reading, How Investor Immigration Could Help Address Unemployment In America, Janet Yellen Should Focus On Fiscal Policy, Not Environmental Activism, U.S. Immigration Reform To Be A Biden Priority, Four Healthcare Trends To Look Forward To In 2021, Congressman Introduces New Bill To Abolish Civil Forfeiture, State Lines Shouldn’t Keep Americans From Getting The Mental Health Help They Need, Stimulus Update: The Good And The Bad Of The $900 Billion Plan, Russian Cyberattack Against U.S. Necessitates Swift Retaliation. The US trade deficit with China was 9.15 per cent wider in July 2020 than May 2016, when President Donald Trump accused China of ‘raping’ the US on … It’s because imports from Vietnam increased 750.33%, making it the third most important manufacturer this year, up from ninth a year ago. This decrease comes after August saw the highest monthly level since August 2006—$64.9 billion (revised from $67 billion). China, according to the CIA World Factbook, has the largest GDP in the world ($25,360,000,000,000). What has been the trajectory of U.S. economic relations with China? Thus, the cumulative trade deficit with China over the last 35 years was almost 2.5 times as large as the cumulative trade deficit with Japan. 2020 : U.S. trade in goods with China . International trade China It is a fact, then, that even though China has both a GDP and a population that is about 10 times larger than Mexico's, Mexico, in 2019, purchased almost 2.5 times the American-made goods when measured in dollar value ($256.4 billion) as China did ($106.6 billion). CCP members hold almost all top government and security apparatus positions.". Mexico's ($2,463,000,000,000) is less than one-tenth that size, and Canada's ($1,774,000,000,000) is less than one-fourteenth. By 2012, it was $315 billion. That's an improvement of $73.75 billion. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Today, the company I founded in 1998, WorldCity, has published annual TradeNumbers publications around the country, from Seattle to Miami, Los Angeles to New York and numerous points in between. In 2001, when China joined the WTO, it was $83 billion. By far, however, the least balanced relationship -- both last year and in recent decades -- has been with China. Beating back the U.S. trade deficit with an approach largely targeting China is a little like ... [+] playing Whack-a-Mole. In 1985, the first year reported by the Census Bureau, the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with China was $6 million. While the US trade deficit with China shrank, the deficit with Japan rose to $5.4bn in November while the deficit with the EU declined to $13.1bn. At this time last year, for the second straight year, China accounted for better than half of all U.S. imports in this category, which also includes computer monitors. The US-China trade deal leaves a large American deficit and a permanent collision course Published Sun, Dec 15 2019 11:30 PM EST Updated Mon, Dec 16 2019 9:46 PM EST Dr. Michael Ivanovitch @msiglobal9 So, yes, we can punish China. In the 35 years from 1985 through 2019, according to Census Bureau data, the United States ran a cumulative merchandise trade deficit with China of $5,501,227,400,000. Since 1985, the first year for which the Census Bureau has posted this nation's bilateral merchandise trade deficits on its website, the United States has accumulated $5.5 trillion in trade deficits with China. The US trade deficit in goods with China in 2016 was $347bn. Details may not equal totals due to rounding. In the case of color TVs, that primarily means adding to capacity from Mexico and Vietnam while cutting back on manufacturing from China. U.S. on verge of first annual decline in trade deficit since 2013 A container area at the port in Shanghai, China. The simmering trade war between the U.S. and China has led both sides to raise tariffs, but the lopsided trade relationship between the two countries means the … Terms under which this service In 2001, when China joined the WTO, it was $83 billion. I also post a weekly Trade Matters video. What is true is that it is down to its lowest level since the same eight-month period of 2011. The U.S.-China Trade Deficit is Growing The trade war between China and the U.S. has been dragging on for over a year now. Table reflects only those months for which there was trade. However, the US has never run a trade deficit with China that is above $337bn. Tariffs are paid by importers, pure and simple. NOTE: All figures are in millions of U.S. dollars on a nominal basis, not seasonally adjusted unless otherwise specified. In fact, in 16 of the 35 years on record, the United States actually ran a merchandise trade surplus with the United Kingdom. In 2018, the biggest trade deficits were recorded with China, Mexico, Germany, Japan, Ireland, Vietnam and Italy and the biggest trade surpluses with Hong Kong, Netherlands, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Belgium, Brazil and Panama. The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with China was $308.8 billion in 2019. 41: Why Jesus Was Born Jewish, You Cannot Love the Poor and Support Lockdowns, Dr. Fauci Admits to Misleading the Public on Health Information, Police: Explosion in Nashville on Christmas Morning Was Intentional, President Trump and First Lady Melania Wish America a Merry Christmas, CNN Actually Went There During Their Santa Tracking Segment, Person of Interest Identified in Nashville Explosion, Why This Senator-Elect Is Warning That Jon Ossoff 'May Be a Security Risk', Whitmer: Come to Think of It, I'm Glad I'm Not Biden's VP, WATCH: CBP Conducts Remote Rescue of Illegal Alien Woman Who Fell From Cliff, What in the Fresh Hell Is This? That’s because U.S. imports from Mexico increased 8.29 % and, for the first time in seven years, it ranks ahead of China as the leading supplier. Terence P. Jeffrey is the editor in chief of CNSNews.com. You may opt-out by. You might hear that the overall U.S. trade deficit, with the entire world, has fallen during the Trump presidency. China is currently the United States’ 3rd largest goods trading partner with $558.1 billion in total (two-way) goods trade during 2019. This year that percentage has dropped to 37.81%, down 40.62% from the first eight months of 2019. Trade in goods alone reached a record deficit of $83.9 billion. Topics.