Many of the trade policies that began in 2018 were driven by the high and persistent U.S. trade deficit with China. For example, the U.S. announced tariffs on solar panels and washing machines from China in January 2018, which is marked by the first vertical line in the FRED graph above. Several rounds of U.S. tariffs followed, and China enacted retaliatory tariffs. We start our graph in January 2016 to include data before and during the period when these trade policies were initiated.* The basic story told by the graph is that U.S. exports to China (in blue) seem to be relatively stable over time, but U.S. imports ... (full story)