US faces widening trade deficit, expert says
Press TV has conducted an interview with Mark Thornton, a US economist and senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Alabama, about the US trade deficit jumping to its highest level in more than six years.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: How are we supposed to look at this if this is the largest increase in imports on record?
Thornton: Yes, that is true. The trade deficit of the US versus the rest of world was a shocking figure this month, up 43 percent over the previous month to one of the biggest multi trade deficits since 1996 totaling, as you said, over 51 billion dollars and that is much more than Wall Street expected.
There are two things about this. One is a temporary factor that the dock workers on the West Coast of the United States had been in a dispute and were not working full-time in the previous month. So the trade deficit was lower just because they could not unload the goods at the dock and now the workers are back and so they are rushing to get the backlog out of the way.
But the more permanent factor is that we are not competitive with the rest of the world and the value of the dollar is high and that makes US goods more expensive and that makes foreign goods like from China seem less expensive and so that drives and continues to drive a widening trade deficit of the United States.
Press TV: If we were to look at any relief in that area, how could you get it? Obviously one important fact with overseas production is the cost of labor compared to that of the United States?
Thornton: That is absolutely correct, and it is a catch-22 situation in the United States because while our central bankers have been telling us that we are going to get higher interest rates, that would further strengthen the value of the dollar and that would likely plunge the US into a recession. Here in the United States, as a matter of fact, economists are expecting the first quarter GDP report, which was very anemic here in the United States into negative territories. So it is a very difficult situation for policy makers to find themselves in today.
AHK/HSN
President Raeisi was a revolutionary icon: Advisor
Exclusive: ‘Israeli enemy disturbed by Gaza news coverage,’ says Al-Alam reporter
West trying to divert attention from Israel's genocide: Analyst
Israel has made largest West Bank land seizure in 3 decades: Report
UK’s complicity in Israeli genocidal war on Gaza to shape Thursday's election
Why can Hezbollah send Israeli regime back to ‘Stone Age’ in the event of war
Iranian musician Bashir Biazar, jailed in France over pro-Palestine views, is released
Biden faces mounting dissent from Democrats to quit election race
VIDEO | Russia says destroyed multiple Ukrainian warplanes over past 24 hours
Leader: Voter turnout 'backbone' of Islamic Republic; Friday runoff 'very important'
Lebanon ‘a hell with no return for Zionists’ in case of war: Iran’s interim FM
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
