First of all, some of the trade agreements haven't kicked in yet but the greatest lie of this entire situation, is what they're not sharing and that is the fact that since the personal and business tax cuts, there's much more discretionary spending. Americans purchased electronics like never before. People were upgrading their televisions (larger screens), even though their televisions didn't stop working. More people bought for the first time, or upgraded, their laptops and tablets. Businesses were upgrading equipment and quite frankly a lot of industrial products are purchased from China, India, Japan, and the Philippines. The problem is some of these countries, like our biggest trade partner China's economy, is sluggish. Their economy has lost steam so has their consumer spending. So we have more money to spend, which is great news for our economy, and they have less; no tariffs will correct this situation.
There's no doubt that Democratic/Socialists can reduce our trade deficit because Americans wouldn't have as much money to spend; this isn't a naïve guess as to what would happen to consumer spending, it's a fact based on history. This whole issue is another great example as to why we can't trust the mainstream media. They buried the lead and that is the great story about consumer spending and how it's impacted global trade. Shouldn't this important denominator to the "problem," have been shared?
The fact is, if we really want to reduce our trade deficits, is that it's up to consumer behavior. Americans weren't forced to buy foreign goods and services, it's a choice. If we'd all do our part to purchase more American goods, then we could get a better balance in trade deficits. More than likely we'd end up paying more for some things, but let's face it, we buy a lot of "wants," not "needs." Comparatively speaking, we have way more stuff than people from other countries. So if we pay more for American goods and services we might not have as many things, or as fancy of things as we could have on the short-term, but the more money we get back into our economy, the more we have a shot in sharing in it. More jobs. More job security. More stability for our retirement incomes. More ability to help others in need.
In most cases, if you want something good, you have to sacrifice on the short-term and that's what I'm talking about here. It doesn't matter what Congress or the President does in reference to trade deals, when we're not doing our part because we're the ones who can really put a huge dent in the problem.