President Trump made the debate over free trade one of the central topics of his campaign, and since his election has continued to argue that the US is in a “very unfair” position when it comes to trade.
He originally focused his energy on China and Mexico, but also recently pointed to Canada and South Korea.
And so, in light of the administration’s continued preoccupation with the US’ trade deficit, a Goldman Sachs equity research team led by Robert D. Boroujerdi shared a chart in a research report to clients showing the trade balance of goods by trading partner for 2014, using data from the Commerce Department.
“We note that while China and Mexico are commonly the focus of political rhetoric, we remind investors that the United States is a net importer of goods from nearly all regions and all sectors,” the team wrote.
“Further, with investor sentiment towards Eurozone growth clearly improving vis-à-vis the United States, as evidenced by the +10% move in the STOXX 600 year-to-date and the +3% move in euro vs. the US dollar over the same time frame, we pause for a minute to highlight that the Eurozone runs an annual trade surplus of more than $100 billion (2014 figures) with the United States, driven primarily by Chemicals ($39.5 billion), Transports ($30.9 billion) and Machinery ($27.0 billion),” they added.
Check out the full chart below. Balances over or under $15 billion are in bold.
