How It Works
When a country imports more than it exports, the resulting negative number is called a trade deficit. When the opposite is true, a country has a trade surplus.
For example, if the United States imported $1 trillion in goods and services last year, but exported only $750 billion in goods and services to other countries, then the United States had a trade balance of negative $250 billion, or a $250 billion trade deficit.
In the United States, the Bureau of Economic Analysis calculates the trade balance. The trade balance is a component of a country's current account, which in turn is a component of the balance of payments (BOP)
