Jake Horton
Appearances
Global News Podcast
China vows to fight US 'blackmail' over tariffs
So, it's true that the US exports far less to the EU than goes the other way, but it's not true to say they take practically nothing from the US. Now, he mentioned agriculture products and cars there. Now, in the last year, in 2024, there was about $370 billion worth of goods that went from the US to the EU, and that included about $13 billion of agriculture products.
Global News Podcast
China vows to fight US 'blackmail' over tariffs
And that makes the EU the fourth largest market for U.S. agricultural product exports of anywhere in the world. So it's not true to say they don't take any agricultural products from the U.S., the EU. And he also mentioned cars. Now, it's true that the car industry has struggled in terms of U.S. exports to the to the EU in previous years.
Global News Podcast
China vows to fight US 'blackmail' over tariffs
But that still doesn't mean there's no cars sent from the U.S., the EU at all. In 2024, there are about 165,000 cars sent from the U.S., to the market in the European Union. So both on the agricultural products and the cars, it's not true to say they take practically nothing.
Global News Podcast
China vows to fight US 'blackmail' over tariffs
Yeah. So another one of his worst offenders is China. And particularly on that, when he talked about the U.S. trade deficit with China, which is how much it sends to China compared to how much it takes in. President Trump said this yesterday.
Global News Podcast
China vows to fight US 'blackmail' over tariffs
So he said the trade deficit, which is the amount of goods that the US takes in compared to the amount of goods it sends to China, was a trillion dollars. Now, the US does have a trade deficit with China, but it's nowhere near a trillion dollars. In 2024, so last year, it was $295 billion in terms of the amount of goods the US takes in compared to the amount of goods it sends to China.
Global News Podcast
China vows to fight US 'blackmail' over tariffs
It's never been anywhere near a trillion dollars. It's not entirely clear where he got the trillion dollar number from, but he might be talking about global trade. So globally... China does export a trillion dollars more goods than it takes in.
Global News Podcast
China vows to fight US 'blackmail' over tariffs
So President Trump could have got his numbers confused with the global trade, but in the Oval Office and on Air Force One previously, he's been speaking specifically about US trade. So that claim is heavily exaggerated.