this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2025
254 points (99.6% liked)
World News
1009 readers
665 users here now
Rules:
- Be a decent person
- No spam
- Add the byline, or write a line or two in the body about the article.
Other communities of interest:
founded 6 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Please China, slap back with an even higher number. See if you can out bluff the annoying orange. I feel like American consumers are way more reliant on Chinese stuff than China is relying on American goods.
local tyrant shoots self in foot, claims trade deficit with guns
Hahaha.. China needs US consumers far more than US needs Chinese consumers.
There's a 200 billion+ trade deficit from China...
Edit: 300 billion
I highly doubt that, the rest of the world buys stuff from a China like crazy as well. They should be able to send the stuff elsewhere instead quite easily. What you're saying sounds just like something the orange idiot would say.
Gives pick me energy and it's the newest talking point and very annoying. Total exports as a percentage is 15% that china ships to the us.
A deficit doesn't make it a bad thing. It means we are more of a consumer economy to focus on higher level of jobs.
Yes, the deficit means China has the greater risk. China pushing a tariff on the little they consume from the US means nothing, just because they buy so little.
Basic economics.
Sure. But they sell a huge amount to the US. And this is about a trade deficit between US and China. This one hurt the US like it will China - US can buy similar goods elsewhere, while the rest of the world can't compensate for the loss of sales to the US - they're already purchasing what they need.
I mean this is basic economics, and you all act like China can magically come up with new customers.
The current effective tariff on Chinese goods is 104%, and that doesn't include the tariffs on countries through which China ships. Those tariffs put Xi in a no-win situation. He can't even afford the 34% Tariff for any length of time, because of the massive overproduction going on. They have manufacturing going to meet demand 6 months from now, to compensate for distribution time. All that stuff will now sit in China, where they don't have storage capacity for it.
Isn't this the entire calculation that Republicans, and frankly, all free market types have gotten massively wrong?
That's not how trade deficits work, unless you've been drinking the koolaid for far too long.
Its not like the market for Chinese goods goes away because the US consumer has been priced out through self owns. So maybe China takes a bit of a hit? They can raise prices elsewhere to compensate or just take the L. But its no catastrophic game breaking L because literally the entire world buys Chinese goods.
Please go around your house and count what percentage of the things you own say "made in china" on them.
this isn't about needing consumers. it's about needing imported goods. how much does the US need things imported from China and how much does China need imports from the US?
also what ... how does the US not need Chinese consumers, it's a ginormous market, have you been sleeping for the last couple of decades where every big American company has been specifically marketing to China?
$361 billion as of 2024. But that doesn't mean they need the US. They're still doing a lot of trade with the rest of the world. And this won't be stopping trade entirely, the US will still be importing a lot from China.
This is literally what their belt and road initative is built to hedge against.
They do right now, as their manufacturing is built around shipping 300 billion more to the US than they buy from the US.
If the US suddenly reduces that buying by even 20%, it's not like they can suddenly sell that elsewhere. "Elsewhere" is already buying what they want. You can't magically make new consumers appear.
There's also $36 trillion in offshore tax havens, but I don't see anybody complaining about that so wtf should we care about 200 billion? How much has USA given to Israel?
I think over the term of the "friendship" over 300 billion dollars
There are far more consumers than producers.
So another way to say it is: US consumers are highly reliant on Chinese producers with few other options. Chinese producers are somewhat reliant on US consumers, but there are options all around the globe.
Really? Let's see China suddenly ship the next 6 months of produced stuff somewhere else and sell it (because they've been making it to allow for shipping time). They're producing 2025 Xmas stuff now.
Who's got 500 billion of extra purchasing power right now? (The 200 billion deficit plus current US purchasing)?
Remember, China has hundreds of massive container ships just waiting to dock. Are they going to spend millions on fuel to now send those ships elsewhere?
Ya all crack me up that you actually believe China has any leverage in this conflict. We haven't even touched on Xi having no ability to back down.
So where will the us get their stuff from?Does somebody else have hundreds of massive container ships ready?
False.
https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/china-mongolia-taiwan/peoples-republic-china
From your source, the last sentence is
Doesn't that confirm their assertion of a $200B+ trade deficit or am I confused? I'm not particularly economics savvy.
Edit: derp, I reversed the meaning of their comment, they thought the US has the deficit. They got it backwards!
What you just posted indicates there is actually a $300 billion deficit with China, which makes their point even more pronounced. China has much more to lose in terms of wealth from trade with the US.
Trump is still a dumbass and we're all the losers in this fiasco though. There are legitimate benefits to trade and sometimes things shouldn't be even.
What is with the down votes? The trade deficit is literally $295 billion for 2024.