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The U.S. trade deficit expanded 6.7 percent in June from May to a record $75.75 billion, the U.S. commerce department reported, as a resurgent economy boosted demand for foreign-made goods while some sectors of the American economy have yet to return to pre-crisis strength. (See “Trade War? U.S. Lost It,” Trends Journal, 9 February, 2021.)
American exports grew 0.6 percent in June to $207.67 billion while imports reached $283.42 billion, the department said.
While the U.S. economy has surged, many developing nations have yet to recover from 2020’s lockdown, limiting their ability to buy U.S. goods and services, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund raised its growth forecasts for western developed economies and cut its outlook for emerging markets, especially in Asia, due to the spread of the COVID virus’s Delta variant around the world.
TRENDPOST: China concentrates on business, while the U.S. spends its energies and assets on geopolitical maneuvering and intrigue. Beijing has learned that lasting world power is more often won through economic might than with diplomats, bombs, or bullets. As we have forecast, the 20th century was the American century, the 21st will be China’s. The business of America has been war, the business of China is business.
We also note the trade deficit to illustrate the failure of the so-called “Trade War” that former President Donald Trump launched against China in 2016. Indeed, just as America has not won a military victory since World War II, by the numbers, so too have they lost the Trade War.