The loss is when we attempt to sell our goods to China they devalue their currency and make our prices too high and not competitive. They also have a communist system and the workers are oppressed and are forced into very low wage labor. China does not have to deal with the extremely strict environmental regulations like the U.S.. Those are a few of the important reasons why our trade imbalance is 500 billion dollars per year. So we are losing on trade deals. That means that China has many jobs that could be here in the U.S..If we had a zero trade deficit with a country then both countries win.
That is not what Trump is saying. Our imports from China in 2015 totaled $482 Billion. He and the “trade deficit” folks call this a $500 billion LOSS. How utterly false and misleading.
Again, the issue is the unfriendly American business environment and weak American competitiveness caused by the skyrocketing costs of doing business due to GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE like taxes, minimum wage, regulation, and unions. Address THAT and business will WANT to return/stay because of cost benefits.
Let the voluntary cooperation of the market economy free of government interference work. Don’t layer more government interference upon that which is the root cause to begin with.