U.S.-China Trade Deficit: Numbers Can Be Deceiving

In 2016, the United States had an $87.6 billion trade surplus with China in the service sector, which is obviously too small to offset the reported $347 billion U.S.-China trade deficit in goods. The question is: “Do these numbers truly reflect the trading relations between the United States and China?” Will the proposed sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports be successful to improve U.S. competitiveness and to revert the overall U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world, and with China, in particular?