Experts argue Trump doesn’t understand trade deficits ahead of visit to World Economic Forum in Switzerland

This week, President Donald Trump is expected to head to the 2018 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The US leader may seem an unlikely guest because Davos brings together the world’s political and economic elite for what is generally viewed as a celebration of globalisation.

Trump, meanwhile, is known for his populist views on trade and criticism of “the false song of globalism”. Indeed, Trump is expected to call for more reciprocal trade deals in a speech on Friday. The scale of the disagreement between the two viewpoints is outlined in a new paper put out by the WEF’s network of trade experts ahead of Trump’s arrival; it directly challenges his administration’s views on trade.

Described as a “Strategic Brief on Misconceptions around Trade Balances”, the paper criticises the narratives that have emerged in a number of countries that relate how “unfair” trade policies led to “large trade deficits, particularly in goods trade, which in turn have driven a decline in manufacturing employment over the past two decades”.

The paper, which was first reported by Reuters, does not mention Trump by name. It does, however, state that these narratives have emerged in “the United States as well as elsewhere” and that the current US “administration is seeking to reduce the trade deficit by renegotiating US trade agreements and adopting more protectionist US policies”.

In all of Trump’s foreign policy, his distaste for what he views as “bad trade deals” may be one of the most consistent positions. The president has criticised not only multilateral trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement or the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but also bilateral deals with allies, such as the free trade agreement with South Korea. Trade deficits, such as the sprawling gap that exists in trade with China, are a particular subject of ire for the Trump administration, too.