The US typically imports more than it exports. In 2023, the US imported $1 trillion more in goods than it exported, marking the sixth straight year of a trade deficit in the trillions (adjusting for inflation).
In two-thirds of its trade relationships with at least $10 billion in two-way trade, the US imported more than it exported — a trade deficit.
The highest trade deficits were with China ($279 billion), Mexico ($152 billion), and Vietnam ($105 billion).
Of course, that means that with one-third of trade partners, the US exported more than it imported, creating a trade surplus. The US had its largest surpluses with the Netherlands ($43 billion), Hong Kong ($24 billion), the United Arab Emirates ($18 billion), and Australia ($18 billion).
“Imported” from Mexico often means “A US company built their factories in Mexico because of cheaper labor costs with fewer regulations”
Adding a 100% tariff to all of those imported goods should help /s
“muh trade deficit!!!!! muh trade deficit!!!! someone do something about the trade deficit before it literally blows up the sun and kills us all!!!!!”
Shouldn’t we have gotten tired of this by now?
The US has been an import country for a long time because it has a very valuable export: the dollar.
No other country could do it. The US has the global reserve currency and the highest global demand on a currency.
Isn’t that always the case with us?
If we import more than we export, then we should have a nice surplus of goods.
So, unless we have a shortage of anything important, a trade deficit isn’t a problem.
Exporting more in the aggregate would just mean we would be getting a surplus of reserve currencies, and probably in foreign denominations.
International trade is sort of complex that way.
This isn’t news. It’s status quo.
It’s interesting, but import/export deficit doesn’t mean a whole lot when the US “exports” a ton of digital and intellectual goods that don’t get included in these numbers.
So if the dollar tanks or is replaced by another currency what are we going to do as a services driven economy?
Many countries import more than they export
The only complaint I have of the visualization aspect of this data is that the colors are too close together. I’m slightly color blind but it looks like 2 shades of blue and takes me a minute to figure out which dot is import vs export
What does “-ve” Imports mean? For UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, and Singapore
I have a trade deficit with the grocery store too
This data is not beautiful.
I’ve had a trade deficit with my grocery story my entire life. Things are still going pretty good. I threatened them with a 100% tariff and they are playing hardball, promising me a 200% tariff in response.
Yup that’s what happens when the industrial base is hollowed out and outsourced to developing nations for pennies on the dollar without pesky things like labour or human rights.
But hey, at least your shitty aliexpress lamp from Amazon was 21 instead of 23 dollars.
cant put a price on culture exports. WE’RE NUMBER 1! WE’RE NUMBER 1!
Richest country in the world doesn’t it make sense that we are receiving more than giving?
How much of that was done by Art Vandelay?
People tend to focus on trade deficits as if they’re a bad thing inherently.
What that ignores is the role in international trade in the overall economy, and what is done with the traded goods within the domestic economy.
24 comments
Source: International Trade Administration
Tools: Datawrapper, Illustrator
More data (and cool animated charts) [here](https://usafacts.org/articles/who-are-the-uss-top-trade-partners/).
How balanced is US trade?
The US typically imports more than it exports. In 2023, the US imported $1 trillion more in goods than it exported, marking the sixth straight year of a trade deficit in the trillions (adjusting for inflation).
In two-thirds of its trade relationships with at least $10 billion in two-way trade, the US imported more than it exported — a trade deficit.
The highest trade deficits were with China ($279 billion), Mexico ($152 billion), and Vietnam ($105 billion).
Of course, that means that with one-third of trade partners, the US exported more than it imported, creating a trade surplus. The US had its largest surpluses with the Netherlands ($43 billion), Hong Kong ($24 billion), the United Arab Emirates ($18 billion), and Australia ($18 billion).
Taken from [this article](https://usafacts.org/articles/who-are-the-uss-top-trade-partners/).
“Imported” from Mexico often means “A US company built their factories in Mexico because of cheaper labor costs with fewer regulations”
Adding a 100% tariff to all of those imported goods should help /s
“muh trade deficit!!!!! muh trade deficit!!!! someone do something about the trade deficit before it literally blows up the sun and kills us all!!!!!”
Shouldn’t we have gotten tired of this by now?
The US has been an import country for a long time because it has a very valuable export: the dollar.
No other country could do it. The US has the global reserve currency and the highest global demand on a currency.
Isn’t that always the case with us?
If we import more than we export, then we should have a nice surplus of goods.
So, unless we have a shortage of anything important, a trade deficit isn’t a problem.
Exporting more in the aggregate would just mean we would be getting a surplus of reserve currencies, and probably in foreign denominations.
International trade is sort of complex that way.
This isn’t news. It’s status quo.
It’s interesting, but import/export deficit doesn’t mean a whole lot when the US “exports” a ton of digital and intellectual goods that don’t get included in these numbers.
So if the dollar tanks or is replaced by another currency what are we going to do as a services driven economy?
Many countries import more than they export
The only complaint I have of the visualization aspect of this data is that the colors are too close together. I’m slightly color blind but it looks like 2 shades of blue and takes me a minute to figure out which dot is import vs export
What does “-ve” Imports mean? For UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, and Singapore
I have a trade deficit with the grocery store too
This data is not beautiful.
I’ve had a trade deficit with my grocery story my entire life. Things are still going pretty good. I threatened them with a 100% tariff and they are playing hardball, promising me a 200% tariff in response.
Yup that’s what happens when the industrial base is hollowed out and outsourced to developing nations for pennies on the dollar without pesky things like labour or human rights.
But hey, at least your shitty aliexpress lamp from Amazon was 21 instead of 23 dollars.
cant put a price on culture exports. WE’RE NUMBER 1! WE’RE NUMBER 1!
Richest country in the world doesn’t it make sense that we are receiving more than giving?
How much of that was done by Art Vandelay?
People tend to focus on trade deficits as if they’re a bad thing inherently.
What that ignores is the role in international trade in the overall economy, and what is done with the traded goods within the domestic economy.
Which is where the measure of Trade-to-GDP comes into play: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_trade-to-GDP_ratio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_trade-to-GDP_ratio)
Looking at this, we can see that while the US is a major player in international trade, its overall domestic economy DWARFS the value of the trade.
Ranking by trade % of GDP, we can see that the US would be ranked 191st, where trade only counts for 15% of its total economy.
So really, it’s not a bad thing that the US has a trade deficit, because those trade goods are leveraged in the larger overall economy.
Surely a 1000% Trump import tariff will fix that 😂
It’s a little misleading with Canada, we are 1/10 th the size.