President Donald Trump will order staff Friday to pinpoint countries and goods responsible for America's nearly $50 billion trade deficit, in a protectionist warning shot to trade partners like China. Top administration officials said Trump will issue a pair of executive orders aimed at rooting out the causes and culprits behind America's trade deficit, in a first step toward converting tough trade rhetoric into action.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said one order would result in analysts going "country by country, and product by product," reporting back to Trump within 90 days. They will look, he said, for evidence of "cheating," inappropriate behavior, trade deals that have not lived up to their promise, lax enforcement, currency misalignment and troublesome World Trade Organization constraints. "It will form the basis for decision making by the administration," he said.
The order comes a week before Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping and is likely to be seen as a warning shot across Beijing's bow. "Needless to say the number one source of the deficit is China," Ross said, before listing more than a dozen other "countries that will potentially be involved."