> From a trade perspective, a rising deficit means the US pays for Chinese goods, while barely getting paid for its products.
From what I understood this is not accurate. An iPhone built from China is recorded for the full value when shipped to US/Europe/etc. This makes it appear that there's a trade deficit while it's actually the opposite (controlled by Apple).
Europe works in a similar way when I looked at it (ages ago). There's various data collected (Eurostat). But for trade it's on value and it's not always clear who controls it, nor where it is headed.
From what I understood this is not accurate. An iPhone built from China is recorded for the full value when shipped to US/Europe/etc. This makes it appear that there's a trade deficit while it's actually the opposite (controlled by Apple).
Europe works in a similar way when I looked at it (ages ago). There's various data collected (Eurostat). But for trade it's on value and it's not always clear who controls it, nor where it is headed.