Trade balances with partner countries.
First, it is necessary to give the general numbers of the foreign trade of the USA.
- The Year 2008 trade industry and the allover trade produced an $821 billion merchandise trade deficit, the 2nd largest negative trade balance in the history of the US economy.
- Cumulative trade deficits have been observed since 1985, total $8.2 Trillion – creating a negative international net worth of $5 Trillion.
- American annual international trade deficit is 35%, which is larger than Social Security spending, 50% larger than all defense spending, and 2.5 times larger than Medicare.
The allover situation is represented on the following chart. (chart below) Originally, this is the chart of the total external debt of the USA. As McConnell and Brue state: “If the debt dependence of the USA were not growing faster than the economy during the period 1975-2008, the GDP growth could be more extensive, and the overall trade balance would have quite the opposite image. Originally, much of that debt was promoted by Federal Reserve interest rate and government tax policies including more rapid debt growth lately fueled by record-low interest rates.”
As for the comparison of the US trade with the trade of its trade partners, the following data is represented:
Taking into account the analysis of the data represented in the tables, it should be stated that deficit and surplus countries are equally represented in the top 10 trading partners list.
