Source: Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne
“True, old-school mercantilists wrongly believed national wealth came from stockpiling gold and silver, so requiring promotion of export surpluses. Their intellectual heirs today tend to fixate on a country’s overall trade deficit with the rest of the world, usually arguing that a large and persistent deficit can sometimes reflect unhealthy imbalances in global saving and investment flows. Yet the logic of Trump’s thinking is much less coherent than even these positions. He doesn’t just worry about America’s overall trade deficit; he demands balanced trade with each and every individual country. Worse, his focus on goods trade means he completely ignores America’s large and growing trade surplus in services – giving a highly distorted assessment of America’s overall trade position.” (04/07/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/logic-behind-trumps-tariffs-not-coherent