President Trump likes to fight each country individually, each with its own personalized trade war. A quick search of this blogroll highlights how quixotic it is to focus on bilateral trade balances. Aside from the fact that the aggregate trade deficit is determined by factors other than unfair trade measures in any particular country, there is also the issue of “trans-shipments.” Brad Setser documented it for “Chicken Feet” while the WSJ documents the same for computer electronics. Chinese exports to the US now simply have to traverse through a 3rd country to avoid 25% tariff.