Trump's return to deficit hike raises concerns

US President Donald Trump continues to blame global trade for causing the loss of jobs and the rise of trade deficits, a view disputed by many economists and experts.

"We have a trade deficit with everybody," Trump said on Tuesday.

He cited the $71 billion deficit with Mexico and the $17 billion one with Canada, two other members in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"That's going to be changing. It's already changing. But it's going to be changing fast," Trump said.

He did not mention the deficit with China. Instead, he talked about the $250 billion in deals he signed during his visit to the country last month.

"We went to China. We brought back over $300 billion worth of contracts from Asia. So it's a very successful trip," Trump said.

US Commerce Department data on Tuesday showed that the trade deficit in October expanded 8.6 percent from September, with record imports from China, Mexico and the European Union before the holiday season. The $48.7 billion has been the highest monthly trade deficit recorded since Trump took power.

In recent years, the US president and many politicians have been painting the US as the victim, rather than a major beneficiary, of global trade and globalization that the US had championed for decades.

Dani Rodrik, a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, said the main reason for the complaint is that the gains of globalization have not been equally distributed in the US.

He pointed out that the groups devising and setting the rules of globalization have been large corporations, many of which are in the US.

"And they have been the big beneficiaries," he said.

"It's really in the United States that it's the distributional issue," he added.

The US government, unlike those in Europe and many Asian nations, has been criticized for doing a poor job in helping people adversely affected in the globalization process.

Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz, the four major presidential candidates in 2016, all opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim economies.

Rodrik did not believe that the TPP would help the US economy much. He described it as mainly to serve US geopolitical interests against China.

Rodrik said the inequality issue in China has also become more serious, but the rapid economic growth in China means that, on the whole, everybody seems to have benefited.

There is renewed concern that the Trump administration may escalate a confrontation with China and on Monday, Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai delivered a stern warning to US trade hawks.

"There are people in Washington who believe that economic and trade issues between our countries should be resolved through a trade war. And I want to tell them, economic and trade relations between our countries are mutually beneficial by nature. Cooperation will make both countries winners. And confrontation will make everybody losers," he said.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 12/08/2017 page11)