Sen. Portman Takes Issue With National Focus on Trade Deficits
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, on Sept. 12 took aim at the notion that trade deficits, particularly those with U.S. free trade agreement partners, pose an issue for the United States. Members of the Trump administration, particularly U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the president himself, have complained about the U.S.’s trade deficit with several countries, namely China, South Korea and Mexico. Without directly criticizing President Donald Trump or any deficit-focused colleagues, Portman during an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies rejected the idea that the U.S.’s roughly $500 billion overall trade deficit in 2016 is a problem in the context of trade agreements.
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The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Commerce Department in July issued a notice for comments sought on the performance of U.S. free trade agreements and on trade relations with World Trade Organization members with whom the U.S. runs a “significant trade deficit” but no FTA (see 1706290011). “In the aggregate, we have a slight surplus with [FTA] countries,” Portman said. The 20 countries with which the U.S. shares 13 FTAs compose 10 percent of global GDP, but the U.S. sends 47 percent of its exports to FTA partners, he said. “Do trade agreements work to knock down the barriers to trade that I talked about earlier?” Portman said. “Yes, they do.” He lamented the fact that the U.S. ranks somewhere around 200 in terms of countries’ exports per capita, “somewhere between Tonga and Ethiopia.” He said the U.S. economy could get a much-needed “shot in the arm” if it works to expand exports, including during ongoing NAFTA negotiations.