Trump spreads false statements on trade relationships with Canada and Europe

Trump spreads false statements on trade relationships with Canada and Europe

Washington - the former President Donald Trump repeated false claims in a virtual speech on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos about the trade relationships of the USA to Canada and Europe. In addition, he expressed some other misinformation and exaggerations in terms of trade, tariffs and economic policy.

trade relationships with the European Union

In his speech, Trump said: "They practically do not accept our agricultural products and they do not accept our cars." However, this is not true. The US government that the EU bought agricultural exports worth $ 12.3 billion from the USA in the financial year 2023 and is thus the fourth largest export market for US agricultural products behind China, Mexico and Canada.

Trump complained about the US trade deficit with China and said: "We have massive deficits with China. Biden has let it get out. There are $ 1.1 trillion deficits; ridiculous, and it is an unjust relationship." However, this is misleading. The record -breaking trade deficit of the United States with China was around $ 378 billion and was Trump's first term in 2018 determined . The deficit fluctuated under bidges, but was less than $ 378 billion every year. The last available annual value for 2023 was around $ 252 billion - less than every year from Trump's presidency. The lowest deficit in Trump's term was around $ 282 billion in 2020.

Commercial deficit of the USA with Canada

During the question-and-answer round of the event, Trump mistakenly claimed that the United States has a trade deficit with Canada of $ 200 or $ 250 billion, and said: "It is not fair that the bilateral deficit should be so high." In fact, the USA deficit with Canada in 2023 was about 40.6 billion dollars, The US government indicates .

Even if you only look at the goods trade without the service sector in which the United States is strong, the deficit with Canada was about $ 72.3 billion in 2023, which is still far from Trump's number. It is worth noting that the deficit mostly by the US imports from günstigem kanadischen Öl verursacht wird, welches contributes to keeping the fuel prices low in the USA .

inflation under biden

Trump claimed that during the bid government "it was probably the highest inflation in the history of our country". Although Trump qualified his statement with the word "probably", this is still wrong. It could be said fairly that the annual US 23.7% in 1920 .

Trump's corporate tax reform from 2017

Trump mentioned that corporate tax in the United States was reduced from 40% to 21% as part of its tax law "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" from 2017. "It was 40%and I brought it to 21%," said Trump. This statement is an exaggeration. Before the 2017 law, the maximum rate of corporate tax was 35%, not 40%. Trump might have thought of the upper individual income tax rate, which was 39.6% before the TCJA and was reduced to 37%.

The reduction of the corporate tax rate to 21% instead of 35% was a decisive measure of the TCJA and the most significant change since 1986. In contrast to the changes in individual and inheritance taxes that expire at the end of this year, the reduction of the corporate tax rate is permanent.

This article was written with the participation of CNN editor Ella Nilsen.