The key question is, is having a negative trade balance a good or bad thing? It seems bad, but if you research economists, many will say it is currently a sign of American economic power--we buy cheap stuff from China, which helps American consumers, and we sell more advanced technological products to foreigners...the other faulty concept is that we need to move manufacturing back to the US. Why? Our workers are paid more and also produce more complex technological products...let Chian and Vietnam pay workers less and produce cheap stuff for us!!!
A trade surplus is when other nations are purchasing more from the US than we purchase from them. I'm not sure what the time tables on who we have had surplusses with was or when.
