The annual trade deficit has fallen. Yet for 2023, our trade deficit of $773 billion was once again the world’s largest. Our goods deficit, at $1.06 trillion, exceeded a trillion dollars for the third year in a row.
The Wall Street Journal has started 2024 bemoaning tariffs. They are for losers, the WSJ Inside View columnist Andy Kessler wrote in December, ending 2023 with a taste of what is expected to come this year, an election year.
The U.S. trade deficit fell by 2% in November over the previous month, with both exports and imports relatively flat ahead of the holiday season.
The October trade deficit rose, but the biggest takeaway from the latest data is how much the China goods gap is in decline this year.
The September trade deficit rose over August with no end in sight to a record breaking goods gap led by imports from China, the EU and Mexico.
The deficit fell in August thanks to US crude oil exports and autoparts shipments to Mexico, for example. But overall, the goods deficit rages on and will break $1.03 trillion this year.
The June deficit fell for the second month in a row, but that doesn’t mean the U.S. is not on track for another trillion-dollar trade gap with the world. China remains largest single source of the trade deficit.
The U.S. trade deficit remains on par to crack $1 trillion again. Meanwhile, a soft decoupling from China can be seen in the latest trade data.
China as a source for American imports is on the wane thanks to tariffs, other business risks. But strong dollar keeps imports booming.
The trade deficit is financing China’s rise, some members of the House Ways & Means Subcommittee on Trade say. What’s at stake? Is it fixable?
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