On December 1, 2020, Ashley Craig was quoted in Forbes on trade issues awaiting President-elect Joe Biden’s administration, including the trade deficit.
According to the article, President Donald Trump issued a list of 16 countries in 2017 that he blamed for the U.S. trade deficit, which spiked by 12.5 percent a year later. The $612 billion deficit was the highest since 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau reported.
Craig said that a trade deficit is not always a bad thing; it reflects that the world has flattened in the sense that supply chains are highly integrated. “We are a consumer nation dependent on sourcing a product from all over the world, and China remains our main trading partner."
“Trade deficit is not new, but what's missing from the discussion is that the trade deficit is a more significant issue for China than the U.S. itself. The U.S. does not borrow in another currency to finance that deficit, leaving China with U.S. dollar-denominated debt on their hands,” he said.
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