The United States buys much, much, much, much more from the world than it sells to the world. Most economists believe that this is an unhealthy trend for the economy of the United States if it persists over the long term. Many economists also believe that, since the U.S. is the single largest national economy on the planet, this is also an unhealthy trend for the global economy. For example, for the first four months of 2006 — these are most recent stats that are available — there were only nine countries in the entire world that bought more stuff from the America bought from them.
Recently, I took a look at the most recent foreign trade numbers issued by the U.S. Census Bureau and present the following snapshots:
- For the first four months of 2006, the American trade deficit is $259.5-billion. In other words, the value of the stuff Americans bought exceeded the value of stuff Americans were able to sell to the rest of the world by nearly $260-billion — and that's just for the first four months of the year.
- For the first four months of 2006, the nations with the biggest trade surplus with the U.S. (or America's biggest trade deficits to turn it around) are (all figures in US$):
- China ($64.4-billion)
- Japan ($28.9-billion)
- Canada ($27.6-billion)
- Mexico ($19.7-billion)
- Germany ($16.5-billion)
- Venezuela ($9.5-billion)
- Nigeria ($8.6-billion)
- Saudi Arabia ($7.5-billion)
- Malaysia ($7-billion)
- Italy ($6.1-billion)
- For the first four months of 2006, the nations with a trade deficit with the U.S. (or America's biggest trade surpluses) are:
- Netherlands ($4.6-billion)
- Australia ($3.2-billion)
- Hong Kong ($2.9-billion)
- Singapore ($1.9-billion)
- Belgium ($1.7-billion)
- Egypt ($394-million)
- Switzerland ($69-million)
- Argentina ($49-million)
- That's it. The U.S. has a trade deficit with every other country in the world with which it trades.
- So far this year, the U.S. has managed to sell $327-billion worth of stuff to the rest of the world. Here are America's biggest export markets:
- Canada ($75.3-billion) (That's more, by the way, than all of the European Union countres combined; three time as much as all of South and Central American countries combined; and about six times more than the combined purchasing of OPEC countries)
- Mexico ($43.4-billion)
- Japan ($18.7-billion)
- China ($16.9-billion)
- United Kingdom ($14.6-billion)
- Germany ($12.9-billion)
- Korea ($10.7-billion)
- Netherlands ($9.7-billion)
- France ($8.1-billion)
- Singapore ($7.4-billion)
- So far — so far, at this point, being the four months of this year ending April 30 — America has bought $583.7- billion worth of stuff from suppliers in foreign countries. One-sixth of that came from Canada. Here are the countries that are America's biggest suppliers:
- Canada ($102.9-billion) (Canada sold twice as much stuff to Americans than every OPEC country combined; and more than twice as much as every South and Central American country combined; Canada also sold more to the U.S. than Japan, Germany, and the UK combined)
- China ($81.2-billion)
- Mexico ($63.1-billion)
- Japan ($47.7-billion)
- Germany ($29.4-billion)
- United Kingdom ($16.7-billion)
- Korea ($14.7-billion)
- Venezuela ($12.085-billion)
- France ($12.083-billion)
- Taiwan ($11.9-billion)