According to new data from The Commerce Department the US Trade Deficit hit 655 Billion, highest since 2008.
The U.S. trade deficit hit the highest level in nine years in 2017, defying President Donald Trump’s efforts to bring more balance to America’s trade relationships.
The Commerce Department said Tuesday that the trade gap in goods and services rose to $566 billion last year, the highest level since $708.7 billion in 2008. Imports set a record $2.9 trillion, swamping exports of $2.3 trillion.
The U.S. ran an $810 billion deficit in the trade of goods and a $244 billion surplus in services such as banking and education.
The goods deficit with China hit a record $375.2 billion in 2017, and the goods gap with Mexico rose to $71.1 billion. Trump has sought to reduce the deficits with China and Mexico. His administration is weighing whether to impose trade sanctions on China for the theft of U.S. intellectual property. It is also renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada.
The overall December trade deficit in goods and services rose to $53.1 billion, up from $50.4 billion in November and highest since October 2008.
Countries run trade deficits when they buy more from other countries than they sell.
As one of Donald Trump’s biggest campaign promises, this is certainly not good news. Throughout the campaign, Trump talked about extensively how America was getting ripped off. These numbers aren’t showcasing a fix to that. With that being said it is important to take the state of the world when looking at these numbers. Trump has not been able to attack China like he might like to due to the fact he needs their help when dealing with North Korea. Mexico might be a different story. Although he is working to renegotiate NAFTA  he has lightened his stance on it. We reported that he fears a NAFTA change might tank the market and also he gave a speech to farmers that supported NAFTA. The trade deficit is quite misleading for Mexico. Just due to the fact Trump has talked tough on NAFTA we saw Chrysler move its plant from Mexico to the United States.
