trade deficit

The US ordered the closure of Beijing’s consulate in Houston because China was "stealing" intellectual property. There are currently three flashpoints between the two countries that include COVID-19, which is said to have originated in China, trade, and Hong Kong.

Russia’s Economic Development Minister, Maksim Oreshkin, has announced that Moscow is preparing a list of goods imported from the USA to be targets of countermeasures designed to respond to Trump’s metals tariffs. The goods to be targeted are to be those which possess a domestically produced alternative, and the economic impact is estimated to meet that which is levied against Russia.
RT reports:

File photo of US President Donald Trump with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It is unclear how the tariffs will affect their warm relationship
China on Saturday continued its second day of harsh criticism of the Trump administration for imposing tariffs set to go into effect on July 6.
A Chinese state newspaper said the US President had an “obsession with playing the disgraceful role of global economic disruptor.”
“The wise man builds bridges, the fool builds walls,” it said.

President Trump is following through on his threat to implement tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports, and China has vowed to retaliate. The tariffs are in response to an investigation that accused China of stealing US intellectual property in order to dominate the development of advanced technology. The US imported $505 billion of goods from China last year and exported about $130 billion, leaving a 2017 deficit of $376 billion. [...]

Every one of the transactions making up these national totals represented a free and voluntary exchange.

“Every battle is won before it is fought.”