Jeff Ferry - China -US Trade Deal Going Down to the Wire #4241
Jeff writes that trade data for November 2018 published by the Department of Commerce indicates that the Trump Administration’s tariffs may finally be improving our balance of trade. The November goods and services deficit came in at $49.3 billion, 11.5 percent better than October’s figure of $55.7 billion. Equally significant, the November figure was only a hair (0.7 percent to be exact) above the November 2017 deficit of $49.0B. Deficits in previous months in 2018 were typically 10 to 15 percent worse than the corresponding month in 2017. If November is now level-pegging 2017 figures, that is a healthy improvement over the earlier months of 2018. It appears that a final deal may be in the offing. Let's see what happens next.