, Columnists
"Huge" Trade Deficits Are Smaller Than You Think
And they may have plateaued, to boot.
Export data isn't nuanced enough.
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There are many good economic reasons why President Donald Trump is wrong to obsess over the U.S. trade deficit with China. One is that this bilateral deficit isn't as severe as he thinks -- and, in any case, the structural factors that caused the imbalance in the first place are changing. Before launching a U.S.-China trade war, the White House needs a more accurate picture of how the world, in fact, trades.
QuickTake Free Trade and Its Foes