Trade and the economy The trade deficit with Chin
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The trade deficit with China
Talking about his proposal for a significant tariff on US imports from China, Trump said, “China was going along making $500 to $600 billion a year and nobody was ever even mentioning it until I came along.” Trump has used such language for years when speaking about the trade deficit with China, the annual difference between what the US imports from and exports to China.
Facts First: Trump’s claim is false. The US has never had a $500 billion or $600 billion trade deficit with China even if you only count trade in goods and ignore the services trade in which the US traditionally runs a surplus with China. The pre-Trump record for a goods deficit with China was about $367 billion in 2015.