The Key to Trump’s Trade Negotiations - Driven By Braman Motorcars
Today’s a key day for international trade as President Trump’s recently announced tariffs haven’t yet taken effect and won’t until tomorrow. Over 70 countries are currently said to be in negotiations or seeking negotiations with the United States to revise trade policies. So, about this. Here’s a look at US trade in a nutshell:
- Total U.S. Goods Exports (2024): Approximately $2.1 trillion
- Total U.S. Goods Imports (2024): Approximately $3.1 trillion
- Trade Deficit: Around $1 trillion annually, consistent with recent years.
A trillion-dollar trade deficit is a big deal, and the point of President Trump’s tariff policy is to put an end to that, so that’s what’s in play in the current trade negotiations. As for the players here’s the total trade value of each partner:
- Mexico: $800 billion
- Canada: $770 billion
- China: $580 billion
- Germany: $230 billion
- Japan: $230 billion
- South Korea: $170 billion
- Vietnam: $150 billion
- Netherlands: $130 billion
- Taiwan: $120 billion
Those are all of the countries with at least $100 billion in total trade with the US over the past year. That means those are the key players to watch as news of negotiations takes place. That’s why, if you’ve been paying attention to details, you’ve heard Vietnam, for example, come up a lot. They’re our seventh largest trading partner far exceeding every European nation except for Germany. Speaking of which...the entirety of the EU comes to a total of about $870 billion – or only slightly more than what we trade with Mexico.
The United States currently runs the largest trade deficits with China, Mexico, Vietnam, Germany and Japan in that order. So those are the countries that Trump will look to drive the hardest deals to bridge the trillion-dollar trade deficit or decide to leave tariffs in place.