USITC’s ruling against the domestic aluminum industry and its workers exposes the futility of relying solely on hyper-specific AD/CVD cases to address today’s rampant trade abuses.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the proper use of tariffs as a trade tool is good for the middle class, especially those that work in the industrial sectors of the economy. No tariffs, on the other hand, may lower costs of goods sold.
The August trade figures came in surprisingly low on Tuesday, falling 10% to $70.4 billion, marking the lowest monthly goods and services gap since March ($67.9 billion), the Bureau of Economic Analysis said today.
Trump said he wanted the U.S. “to be the manufacturing superpower in the world. We can do that intelligently with trade policy that uses tariffs that encourages production here. We deserve it.”
The U.S. goods and services trade deficit rose 7.9% for the month of July, but the goods deficit alone hit a record for the year – $103.13 billion. The previous high was in May at $100.1 billion.
Excessive imports siphon demand for goods and services away from American producers and drive the government to run a budget deficit to cover that gap.
The U.S. goods and services deficit fell 2.5% in June to $73.1 billion, but that was still the third highest monthly deficit number this year, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Tuesday.
The goods and services deficit for May rose a tad to $75 billion, up 0.8% from the previous month.
The monthly goods and services trade deficit between the U.S. and the rest of the world has skyrocketed by a whopping 8.7% to $74.6 billion in April, putting the month well above the three month trend line.
While the month-over-month goods deficit with China fell by around $3.7 billion, the deficit with Mexico rose by $2 billion over the same period.
