It's the yuan, stupid

Why Trump is going about the trade deficit with China all wrong

President Trump and Xi Jinping.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

President Trump wants China to buy more American stuff. Late last week, White House officials met with China's chief economic minister Lie He and reportedly discussed a deal in which Trump would drop his various tariff threats in exchange for China buying a lot more American exports. The White House is gunning for $200 billion more, which would reduce the United States' trade deficit with China by well over half. The weekend ended with an agreement for the Chinese to buy something. But no specific number was reached and talks remain open-ended.

Whatever happens, Trump deserves some credit for pushing China to bring the trade deficit down. But he's really going about it all wrong. The way to fix this mess isn't through American exports, it's through the Chinese yuan itself.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.