The $1.4 Trillion U.S. ‘Surplus’ That Trump’s Not Talking About

  • Deutsche Bank calculates impact of U.S. companies’ sales
  • Focus on trade balance is ‘misleading,’ economist Zhang writes
Trump's 'America First' Agenda Is Good for China, Natixis Says
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The U.S. has a surplus of $20 billion with China and $1.4 trillion with the rest of the world.

That’s not a normal trade balance, of course, where the U.S. registered an annual deficit of more than $330 billion with China and about $550 billion with the world last year, but an "aggregate sales surplus" which measures both direct trade and the sales of multinational companies, according to research by Deutsche Bank AG.