U.S. International Trade: Trends and Forecasts, November 19, 2010

摘要

The U.S. trade deficit had been decreasing through May 2009 because of the global financial crisis but since then has begun to increase again. The financial crisis caused U.S. imports to drop faster than U.S. exports. The global simultaneous recession, however, implies that exporting countries cannot rely on increased foreign demand to make up for slack demand at home. Even though U.S. imports have been down considerably from the first half of 2008, companies competing with imports still face diminishing demand as the domestic economy has been slow to recover from the recession. These conditions imply that the political forces to protect domestic industry from imports are likely to intensify both in the United States and abroad.