Breitbart: The Trump administration insists that the U.S. runs a trade deficit with Canada. Canada denies that’s true.
But the most important outcome of the quarrel over the trade numbers may be that it undermines the case for preserving the North America Free Trade Agreement.
The Trump administration accurately points out that the U.S. has a trade deficit with Canada in goods. The basic data from the U.S. Census Bureau puts this at $17.6 billion in 2017, up from $11 billion the prior year.
“We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries,” President Trump said in a tweet.
But the U.S. and Canada also trade in services–and the U.S. has an advantage in these. Once services and goods are included, the U.S. ran a small surplus of $2.8 billion in 2017, according to the latest data from the Department of Commerce.
Canada prefers to use the combined goods and trade numbers while insisting that it does not think deficits or surpluses are a good way of measuring the health of trade relationships at all. Trump’s critics have jumped on the administration’s focus on the goods deficit, arguing it is not an accurate way of depicting trade between the U.S. and Canada.
Interestingly, there’s a discrepancy between the way the U.S. and the way Canada tracks the data. According to official Canadian government data, the U.S. had a $20.5 billion combined goods and services deficit with Canada. So Trump’s claim is undoubtedly right under Canada’s way of counting the deficit. more here
Canada wouldn’t know facts anyways.
http://nationalpost.com/news/world/heres-a-helpful-suggestion-belgium-how-about-getting-a-less-confusing-flag
POTUS Trump has been using the NAFTA to crowbar other concessions and as long as he continues to engage (dangle the carrot), he will gain ground with its members. But in the end I think we will not be in the NAFTA. It’s anti-bilateral.
What services does Canada offer the U.S. we can’t do ourselves or have illegals do?
Oil, lumber, ore, farm products, technology (there are some great Canadian companies ), etc. We need a solid trade agreement with Canada and calling it “NAFTA” is fine.
If it weren’t for Benedict Arnold Canada would be ours anyway.
A few weeks ago I posted a link from the US Department of Commerce (I think that was it) that showed the 2017 trade deficit with Canada at about 5 billion on total trade of 600 billion. That was mostly crude oil that the US processed and sold but I suspect that forestry products were in there as well. This was the smallest deficit among the top trading partners the US has. I like Trump and our Prime Minister may be a dolt but he may push us into enlarging trade with Europe, Japan, China and South America. It won’t be easy and times may be difficult but once markets have been moved they’re damned tough to get back. If the US is unsatisfied with NAFTA they likely have more issues with Mexico then Canada and maybe ought to be thinking more along the lines of resurrecting the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement.