US trade deficit hits 10-year high despite Trump’s tariffs

Anca Alexe 07/03/2019 | 08:35

The United States had a 10-year high trade gap with the rest of the world in 2018 (USD 621 billion), despite President Donald Trump’s plans to reduce the deficit through higher tariffs, a key point in his policymaking, the BBC reports.

Trump claims that the US is being “ripped off” by other countries and wants those countries to impose lower tariffs on US goods and buy more of them.

Official data, however, shows that while exports of US goods and services rose by USD 148.9 billion last year, imports jumped by USD 217.7 billion.

Last year’s trade gap is the largest since the global financial crisis started in 2008.

Last year was market by Trump’s trade war with China as the US claimed it had unfair trade practices. However, the two nations have had thorough negotiations in the past few months and expect to reach an agreement by the end of March.