JAKARTA, detak24com – President Donald Trump declared a national economic emergency and claimed that the United States had been treated badly by foreign countries.
In a statement on Thursday (03/04/25) Indonesian time, Trump said that foreign countries were happy to sell goods to the US, but used trade restrictions to make US-made goods unattractive and uncompetitive.
“I find that the underlying conditions, including the lack of reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships, differing levels of tariffs and non-tariff barriers,” Trump said in a statement released by the White House, on April 2, 2025 local time.
“And the economic policies of US trading partners that suppress domestic wages and consumption, as demonstrated by the large and persistent annual US goods trade deficit, constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States,” he continued.
“The threat originates entirely or largely outside the United States in the domestic economic policies of major trading partners and structural imbalances in the global trading system,” Trump said.
In the statement, Trump also mentioned that he had signed a trade policy memorandum investigating why the US has a large and persistent annual goods trade deficit.
“Including the economic and national security implications and risks that result from the deficit, and to review and identify unfair trade practices by other countries,” Trump said.
In addition, he also signed a memorandum on Reciprocal Trade and Tariffs on February 13, 2025, which will further review non-reciprocal trade and note the relationship between non-reciprocal practices and the trade deficit.
“On April 1, 2025, I received the final results of that investigation, and I am taking action today based on those results,” he concluded.
CNN said the budget deficit that Trump was referring to was that the US imported more goods than it exported in 2024, with the excess imports amounting to US$1.2 trillion and a record for US trade.
However, economists largely agree that the goods trade gap does not tell the whole story of America’s economic interactions with its trading partners.
That is, the US ran a surplus in services in 2024, exporting $1.1 trillion worth of services, also a record high,
CNN said the trade deficit was offset by capital and financial account exports (the US had a surplus), which includes foreign asset transactions and international debt forgiveness. (cnn)
Editor: kar
