trade deficit
- noun
- /treɪd ˈdɛfɪsɪt/
- Specialized
- This year, the United States is projected to have a trade deficit of $500 billion, meaning it will import far more than it exports.
- reduce the trade deficit
- run a trade deficit
- increase the trade deficit
Does rebalancing the trade deficit really get in the way of those goals for China?
- Does rebalancing the trade deficit really get in the way of those goals for China?
- You can either import less because it's more expensive and then therefore your trade deficit narrows, or better export more.
- Only these economies and financial systems are large enough, open enough, and flexible enough to accommodate large trade deficits.
- The Chinese trade surplus would remain as big as before even if it fell against the United States, and the US trade deficit would continue to grow too.
- Instead, what they did was they took the trade deficit of each country.
- And the difference allows you to fund sort of systematic trade deficits.
- They're all about the the fear tactics stirred up about the trade deficit.
- And so just every step of his reasoning and fixation on trade deficits is just the wrong, wrong way to think about trade.
Examples
-
During the same period, the U.S. trade deficit with China increased proportionally from $2.8 billion to $33.8 billion.
Academic text (1999) -
Yes, we have a trade deficit, but we also have a rose surplus, OK.
-
Instead, what they did was they took the trade deficit of each country.
-
That was about our entire balance of trade deficit in those days.
-
And today we have record trade deficits with China.
-
First, oil imports contribute heavily to the United States' trade deficit, which is at record levels.
Academic text (2008) -
America obviously needs a currency correction to help reduce its trade deficit.
Academic text (1999) -
As American producers followed suit, the result was a mounting trade deficit with Japan.
Academic text (1990) -
Thus, countries that are regarded as good places to invest find it hard to avoid trade deficits.
Academic text (1990) -
The aim was to reduce the US trade deficit by shifting American trade policy from multilateral free trade agreements to bilateral trade deals.
Synonyms
The difference between the value of a country's imports and exports over a time period
Antonyms
- Specialized
A country sells more goods to other countries than it buys from them
How Favorable
- Specialized
- Specialized
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'imports exceed exports' is directly derivable from combining 'trade' (buying and selling of goods) with 'deficit' (a shortfall); together they denote a shortfall in trade. This is a productive, transparent noun-noun composition with clear cross-linguistic parallels, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should understand it.
Etymology
Trade deficit comes from the literal idea of trade (buying and selling) and deficit (not enough). Imagine a shop that buys more than it sells, so it spends more than it earns. For a country, when 'imports' are larger than 'exports', it has a 'trade deficit'.