CRS asks whether trade deficits should be 'redefined'

With “some policy makers” advocating a new way of defining trade deficits – making them appear larger – the Congressional Research Service has issued a brief report outlining some of the associated issues. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the Trump administration was “considering changing the way it calculates U.S. trade deficits, a shift that would make the country’s trade gap appear larger than it had in past years,” an idea met with swift criticism from the...