Trade deficits are rarely considered to be a good thing. But there are some — like President Donald Trump and Peter Navarro, the White House director of trade and manufacturing policy — who think they are inherently bad and reducing them needs to be a focus of economic policy.

A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute indicates that China’s expansion since 2001 — which caused a leap in the U.S. trade deficit — has cost more than 3.7 million jobs in this country.

To explain more about why, The Show spoke with Rob Scott. He is EPI’s senior economist and director of trade and manufacturing policy research.

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