Quote:After high-level talks Thursday and Friday in Washington, Beijing agreed in a joint statement with the U.S. to "substantially reduce" America's trade deficit with China, but did not commit to cut the gap by any specific amount. The Trump administration had sought to slash the deficit by $200 billion.

(05-21-2018 12:21 PM)BobcatEngineer Wrote:  Hold your horses....

China hasn't agreed to reducing the trade deficit by $200 Billion yet...

Quote:After high-level talks Thursday and Friday in Washington, Beijing agreed in a joint statement with the U.S. to "substantially reduce" America's trade deficit with China, but did not commit to cut the gap by any specific amount. The Trump administration had sought to slash the deficit by $200 billion.

(05-21-2018 12:26 PM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  

(05-21-2018 12:21 PM)BobcatEngineer Wrote:  Hold your horses....

China hasn't agreed to reducing the trade deficit by $200 Billion yet...

Quote:After high-level talks Thursday and Friday in Washington, Beijing agreed in a joint statement with the U.S. to "substantially reduce" America's trade deficit with China, but did not commit to cut the gap by any specific amount. The Trump administration had sought to slash the deficit by $200 billion.

You do realize "at least 200B" is "not a specific amount".... Both things *can* be true.

Now will Trump get them to 200B? IDK, seems like a stretch, but he certainly doing better with them then Obama did..

(05-21-2018 12:49 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Here is the problem that is being ignored. Yes we have a large trade deficit with China. But we also have a trade deficit with other places. Let's work to trim the China deficit, but at the same time let's work to turn around a lot of other deficits. China is by no means all of our deficit.

See https://www.thebalance.com/trade-deficit-by-county-3306264

"The United States could make almost everything it needs. But some countries can make products just as well for a lower price. It makes more sense to pay less for these goods. The savings are then invested in the industries America does best.

For other products, America has an advantage. These are agricultural products and industrial supplies like organic chemicals. They also include capital goods like transistors, aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers, and telecommunications equipment.

The United States runs a deficit with countries who fit at least one of the following three criteria.

1) They can produce things more cheaply than the United States can, such as consumer products or oil. That is changing with U.S. production of shale oil.

2) They don't need what America is good at making.

3) They trade a lot of everything with the United States, but America imports more than it exports.

Most of the trading partners that the United States has deficits with fall into the first two categories. The two largest are China and Japan. Some of the largest deficits are with countries in the last category. They include Canada, Mexico, and Germany."

(05-21-2018 01:03 PM)Kronke Wrote:  

(05-21-2018 12:49 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Here is the problem that is being ignored. Yes we have a large trade deficit with China. But we also have a trade deficit with other places. Let's work to trim the China deficit, but at the same time let's work to turn around a lot of other deficits. China is by no means all of our deficit.

See https://www.thebalance.com/trade-deficit-by-county-3306264

"The United States could make almost everything it needs. But some countries can make products just as well for a lower price. It makes more sense to pay less for these goods. The savings are then invested in the industries America does best.

For other products, America has an advantage. These are agricultural products and industrial supplies like organic chemicals. They also include capital goods like transistors, aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers, and telecommunications equipment.

The United States runs a deficit with countries who fit at least one of the following three criteria.

1) They can produce things more cheaply than the United States can, such as consumer products or oil. That is changing with U.S. production of shale oil.

2) They don't need what America is good at making.

3) They trade a lot of everything with the United States, but America imports more than it exports.

Most of the trading partners that the United States has deficits with fall into the first two categories. The two largest are China and Japan. Some of the largest deficits are with countries in the last category. They include Canada, Mexico, and Germany."