We often hear about the US trade deficit with the rest of the world.
Wolfram Alpha claims it is on the order of $706 billion per year. This Bloomberg article says $502 billion. The number itself is not as important as the fact that is it pretty big.
Yuuuuuuge!
Below is the breakdown of this number showing all of the main US trading partners, and which of them have the trade deficit with the US, and which don’t.
The conclusion is: almost everyone!
The US seems to have a trade deficit with almost every top partner. And if you look at the world map in terms of the US trade balance (country size is made proportional to its trade and its color reflects either a deficit or a surplus), the world looks like this:
Top 5 Positive Balances
- Hong Kong: $30.5 billion
- Netherlands: $24.0 billion
- Belgium: $14.6 billion
- Australia: $14.2 billion
- Singapore: $10.4 billion
Top 5 Negative Balances
- China: $365.7 billion
- Germany: $74.2 billion
- Japan: $68.6 billion
- Mexico: $58.4 billion
- Ireland: $30.4 billion
BLACK BOX PARADOX 