Trump says that the US is losing on trade with 'almost all countries' - but the reality is a bit different
- President Donald Trump said tariffs on steel and aluminum were needed because the US has a trade deficit with "almost all countries."
- But, according to the US Census Bureau, the US actually has a trade surplus with six out of its top 15 trading partners.
President Donald Trump recently ramped up his tough talk on trade with the imposition of new tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum.
In defending the tariffs, which many economists worry could have negative implications, Trump said the restrictions were needed because the US's trade deficits suppressed economic growth.
"We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive)," Trump tweeted last Thursday.
Despite Trump's claim, the full picture of US trade is a bit more nuanced.
The US did run an overall trade deficit of $566 billion last year when accounting for both goods and services. But America had a surplus with six of the 15 major trading partners that the Census Bureau tracked in 2017.
The US largest trade surplus in 2017 was with Hong Kong, totaling nearly $35 billion. Following closely behind were Brazil (surplus of $28 billion), Singapore ($20 billion), and the United Kingdom ($14 billion).
Additionally, despite Trump's repeated insistence that the US runs a deficit with Canada, that was not the case in 2017. The US actually ran a surplus just shy of $3 billion with our neighbor to the north.
The largest deficit by far is, perhaps unsurprisingly, with China. While the country is the third-largest destination for US exports, with more than $186 billion worth of American goods going to China, the difference is more than made up by the $524 billion worth of Chinese goods coming into the US.
The large deficit is part of the reason the president announced tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods on Thursday.
Beyond China, the US' largest deficits were with Mexico (a $69 billion deficit), Germany ($68 billion), and Japan ($56 billion).
Outside of the top trading partners, the US ran a $41 billion deficit with all other countries.
Here's the breakdown:
