John Block: Trade

I want to focus on trade today.  From agriculture’s perspective, it is extremely important.  25% of ag income comes from products sold to other countries.  Production from 1 out of every 3 acres is exported.  Agriculture has a positive trade balance of more than $30 billion.  As positive as our ag trade balance is, total U.S. trade is running a massive trade deficit – roughly $700 billion.  Trump has already rejected the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement.  He wants bilateral agreements with individual countries.  My first question is – what trading partners are pushing up this huge imbalance? Answer – China gets the prize. Half of the deficit is because of Chinese trade.  Then, we can blame the EU for 20%; Japan for 9%; Mexico for 8%; and Canada for a tiny 2%.  Other countries in the world make up the rest.