CRS Report Questions Value Of Trade Balance Data In Assessing Bilaterals

A new Congressional Research Service report concludes that merchandise trade balances as a core measure of bilateral trade relationships may be losing value and asks whether Congress should consider what it would take to refine data to get more meaningful results. “Although bilateral merchandise trade balances can provide a quick snapshot of the U.S. trade relationship with a particular country,” the study says, “most economists argue that such balances serve as incomplete measures of the comprehensive nature of the trade...