贸易赤字创历史新高，特朗普的“美国优先”大计遇挫

美国商务部于上月底公布，去年美国商品贸易赤字超过8910亿美元，创史上最高纪录。

特别是中美贸易领域，尽管特朗普政府为降低对中国商品的依赖加征了关税，但去年美国对华贸易赤字仍然达到创纪录的4190亿美元。

与此同时，去年12月，美国的商品与服务贸易赤字11月环比大涨19%，增至598亿美元，月度赤字额为十年来最高水平。

数据显示，特朗普提出的美国优先政策虽然目标是消除贸易逆差，但并没有达到预期的效果。去年美国的海外进口总值远超出口总值，全年进口额增长了7.5%，出口额仅增长6.3%。

此外，特朗普在2017年年末推行的1.5万亿美元减税政策进一步加剧了贸易逆差。美国政府不得不举债负担减税的成本，其中一些资金来源就来自于海外投资者。

美联储去年为了对抗经济过热的预期共加息四次，推动美元汇率上升，刺激美国人购买相对廉价的海外商品。

去年美国已经是连续第三年贸易赤字扩大，还刷新了2006年创造的赤字纪录。虽然特朗普可能会因此而担忧，但很多经济学家认为他的重点不应该放在削减贸易赤字上。经济学家指出，赤字数据反映的并不仅是美国与外界贸易关系，而是多种经济因素的综合体现。（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林

The Commerce Department reported at the end of last month the U.S. posted a more than $891 billion merchandise trade deficit last year—the largest in the history of the country.

Significantly, the trade deficit with China hit a record $419 billion, despite a series of tariffs the administration imposed on Chinese goods to decrease reliance on imports.

Meanwhile, the overall goods and services deficit jumped 19% between November and December 2018, to $59.8 billion, the highest monthly trade deficit in 10 years.

The data shows that Trump’s America First policies to close the trade gap haven’t had their desired effect. Americans are importing far more from abroad than they are exporting—imports grew 7.5% while exports increased only 6.3%.

What’s more, Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut enacted in late 2017 served to further fuel the deficit. The government had to borrow to pay for the cut, and some of those dollars came from foreign investors.

Simultaneously, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates four times last year to offset fears of an overheating economy, thereby increasing the strength of the dollar and encouraging purchase of relatively inexpensive foreign goods.

This is the third consecutive year of increasing trade deficits, topping the previous record in 2006. But while that might be of concern for Trump, many economists disagree with his emphasis on reducing the deficit. They suggest such deficits are not a reflection of American trading relationships, but rather simply a reflection of a variety of economic forces.