this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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This article is about how the US is turning its back on free trade, which has actually made the US very rich.

Trump wants to get trade deficits with other countries to zero, but the author of this article says "there is no inherent reason why these numbers [trade surpluses and deficits] should be zero".

As the author explains, "different countries are better at making different products, and have different natural and human resources". One country might grow lots of food, and another might have large iron ore deposits. These differences can create trade surpluses and deficits between countries, which aren't necessarily a bad thing.

But as the author says: "according to the White House, the act of selling more goods to the US than the US sells to you, is by definition 'cheating' and is deserving of a tariff that is calculated to correct that imbalance".

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[–] Litebit@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Good point.

US with a population of 300 million with a high GDP per capita trades with a country of 1 million with low GDP per capita.

The country of 1 million can sell 300 million cheap spoon to US.

But US will only be able to sell 1 million fork to that country. There is no way that country can buy 300 million fork to create a balance. The imbalance is natural and is not cheating.

Unless all the countries US trades with are equally wealthy and equal population (same amount of money and same amount of people or same concumption capacity), there will be imbalances.

There are other things to look at, too, like does a country in the equator need winter jackets? Assume US is the largest producer of winter jackets, and if they try to sell them, winter jacket it will lead to imbalances too. nobody will buy them. A country that is mostly buddhist/hindu will probably not import any beef from US.