Fact Check of the Day
The president claimed that the European Union had a $151 billion trade surplus with the United States. It’s $101 billion.
Please tell Prime Minister Trudeau and President Macron that they are charging the U.S. massive tariffs and create non-monetary barriers. The EU trade surplus with the U.S. is $151 Billion, and Canada keeps our farmers and others out. Look forward to seeing them tomorrow.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2018
THE FACTS
This is exaggerated.
Mr. Trump’s numbers are off. The European Union had a $153 billion trade surplus in goods with the United States in 2017 and a total trade surplus of $101 billion when trade in services is included.
This means that the European Union exported more goods to the United States than it imported. Put another way, the United States had a total trade deficit of $101 billion with the European Union.
Mr. Trump often ignores trade in services — like finance, technology and law — when making claims about the trade balance. He has done so against the advice of most economists and his own economic report, as The New York Times reported in March:
Mr. Trump’s preoccupation with trade in goods contradicts his own White House economic report, which he signed and was released in February.
The United States’ economy has shifted “away from manufacturing and toward service provision industries” in recent decades, according the report. “Focusing only on the trade in goods alone ignores the United States’ comparative advantage in services.”
Mr. Trump’s post on Twitter on Thursday evening followed one from President Emmanuel Macron of France, who accused the American leader of isolationism. The dueling Twitter posts previewed a two-day meeting in Canada with the Group of 7 industrialized nations.
Sources: Census Bureau, Twitter, The New York Times
Linda Qiu is a fact-check reporter, based in Washington. She came to the Times in 2017 from the fact-checking service PolitiFact. @ylindaqiu
