The Wall Street Journal has a handful of charts that briefly explain trade deficits and imbalance, which were used to calculate the recent “liberation” tariffs.
A trade deficit is the difference between the value of the goods and services a country imports and the value of goods and services it exports. A deficit means that a country is importing more than it exports. A surplus means the opposite. Economists sometimes examine the total trade balance—goods and services—and sometimes analyze just goods or services trade. Services include transportation, construction and the provision of accounting or legal support. The White House’s tariff analysis appeared to include only goods, not services.
