Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "United States balance of trade" in English language version.
Navarro's comments drew skepticism from trade experts and economists across the political spectrum, who said that line of thinking on economics was flawed. Economists say trade deficits aren't an indication of good or bad economic times, but rather a function of savings and investments. (The United States enjoyed a stellar trade surplus during the Great Depression in the 1930s, for example.) "He won't find economists — either on the left or the right — that believe trade deficits are this huge a problem", Chip Roh, a former assistant U.S. trade representative and trade lawyer, told Foreign Policy. "It doesn't make economic sense." "When economists hear, 'Our goal is reduce the trade deficit,' it baffles us", Gordon Hanson, a trade economist at the University of California, San Diego, told FP. "He's either using it as a cheap political ploy or there's a misconception — he doesn't understand how it operates."
The vast majority of economists view it differently. In this mainstream view, trade deficits are not inherently good or bad. They can be either, depending on circumstances.
At a conference Monday morning in Washington, Peter Navarro, the director of Trump's National Trade Council, reiterated the administration's focus on the trade deficit. The Trump administration policy is one of "free and fair and truly reciprocal trade that begins and ends with the belief that bilateral trade deficits do indeed matter", he said. "Trade deficits not only matter when it comes to jobs and growth and national security, they matter a great deal", Navarro said. Many economists disagree with this claim, saying that the factors behind the trade balance can be complex — and that the trade deficit is far from the best economic metric for policymakers to target... In an interview Monday, Angus Deaton, who won the Nobel Prize for economics in 2015, called the administration's attitude on trade deficits "an old-fashioned mercantilist position". "If you stand on a platform, it makes you six inches taller", he said. "It's a ridiculous argument."
The vast majority of economists view it differently. In this mainstream view, trade deficits are not inherently good or bad. They can be either, depending on circumstances.
