China-US Trade Friction: Is the trade deficit really that enormous?

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Trump has imposed these tariffs in the belief that the US trade deficit with China is too large to be tolerated. But is that a fact? Or is it just a question of how it's measured? Let's take a look. Here are the key US imports from China: Steel and aluminium, clothing, processed food, basic aerospace components and electronic devices.

And its exports to China include: Boeing air-planes and components, sophisticated medical devices, automobiles, computers and mobile phones, and agriculture products like soybeans and wheat.

Now, services are just as vital a part of trade as goods. But when calculating the deficit, the US Commerce Department doesn't include services. Since the US is one of the world's largest providers of services, excluding its service data can greatly affect its trade deficit figures.

And even without service data, China is not the one to blame for the enlarging of the US trade deficit. Data from February show the US trade deficits with Mexico and Germany increased enormously, while the deficit with China dropped by nearly 20%.

Deutsche Bank research also shows that, apart from excluding service exports, profits of US enterprises in China were also not included in the US trade statistics.