Trump’s Favorite Metric Has Biden Winning the US-China Trade War
- Merchandise deficit in 2023 likely to be lowest since 2010
- But it’s an increasingly flawed measure of the relationship
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President Joe Biden is winning the trade war with China judging by rival Donald Trump’s favorite metric. The rub: It’s an increasingly flawed measure of the world’s most important economic relationship.
Figures due Wednesday are set to show the US deficit in goods trade with China in 2023 hit its lowest annual level since 2010, when demand was soggy in the wake of the global financial crisis. Bloomberg Economics calculates that the US gap likely amounted to about 1% of gross domestic product, the lowest since 2003.