Global trade shortages? America is the largest exporter of services in the world

The hard -working American worker, you could call the archetype in whose name President Donald Trump started his trade war with the rest of the world. Returning classical factory work to the United States is his pronounced goal. Understanding your sleeves: manufacturing industry, in the old -fashioned sense of the word: cars, electronics, but also clothing, shoes and so on. In English this worker also becomes Blue-Collar Worker Named, after the blue overall that was worn by many factory workers.

The resurrection of the factory worker is one of the promises that Trump made in his campaign. It Make America Great Again is based on this somewhat old -fashioned view of the economy. The war war is also based on it: Trump only looks at goods when determining the trade barriers that other countries impose on the US. Based on the American goods trading balance with the rest of the world, he stated his now Norious sample of ‘reciprocal’ taxes On: 20 percent for Europe, 46 percent for Vietnam, 30 percent for South Africa and so on. Most taxes have been since last week on hold For ninety days, but the threat remains, just like the base: goods.

The US president determines the playing field of the trade war, that much is clear. But the incomprehensible thing about it is: the American economy is no longer running on blue collars. In the 1950s, around 35 percent of American employees worked in the private sector in the manufacturing industry. That share has fallen to 9.4 percent now (still just under 12.8 million jobs).

The majority (more than 75 percent) of American employees are nowadays ‘in the office’, in the service sector. Think of financial services such as banks and insurers, business services such as accountancy or legal profession, but also telecom, IT, care, hospitality, culture and recreation. This White-Collar Worker (To the white collar of the shirt), in economic interest, the baton took over from the overalls long ago.

This shift applies to the US, but actually for the majority of Western economies. In the Netherlands, around 2 percent of workers work in agriculture (primary sector), just under 20 percent in the industry (secondary sector) and the rest, around 80 percent, in services (tertiary and quartar, for private and public).

1,026 billion in services

The claim of Trump that the US is being caught throughout the world (the American trade deficiency), however, lasts primarily when the goods flows are looked at. Whoever involves the services suddenly sees A much more nuanced image. Whereas the US had a shortage on the trade balance for goods of around 1,060 billion dollars in 2024, the balance for services broke the whole other side. America exported for 1,026 billion in services, making it the largest exporter of services in the world. America imported for $ 748 billion in services. On balance, the US therefore had a service trading surplus of just under 280 billion dollars.

Services are more difficult to export than goods. Whereas with goods a container is fully loaded with products or raw materials, services are often linked to people. It is also much more difficult to calculate import duties about services, if only because the turnover and profit of services can easily be ‘moved’.

But the American dominance in the field of service can certainly be felt in every country. Bancair makes Kolossen such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan the service. The largest asset managers in the world (BlackRock, Vanguard) are American. Large American law firms are important players in every business district in the world. And just about the entire internet (social media, search engines, cloud services) is in the hands of Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook.

In financial services alone, the US has a surplus on the trade balance of $ 113 billion, in the field of other business services (lawyers and so on) a surplus of 109 billion. Even with intellectual property, telecom and travel, the balance for the US is positive: in all these areas America exports more than it imports.

Rate of 218 percent to US

All in all (goods and services) still an American trade deficit of around $ 750 billion remains, but it is a lot smaller than what Trump counts with. Therefore, the reciprocal taxes that Trump wants to impose others should be considerably lower. And those who are further zooming in to individual countries, sometimes even sees the balance turning completely. In a recent newsletter from Global Trade Alertan NGO that keeps and analyzes trade barriers, two authors do a finger exercise what that total trade balance could have for consequences (certainly not, they say they have). A country like Saudi Arabia should impose a rate of 218 percent on the US if the service sector was the benchmark. Brazil can introduce a levy of 148 percent, Ireland 112 percent. And even China would have the ‘right’ with Trumps ‘own methodology’ to introduce a levy of 70 percent on American services.

It is unlikely that such rates will ever be introduced, no country (except China) seems prepared to use the weapons that Trump has used in the same way. But the fact that services can be part of the trade war could be found, according to the reaction of the European Commission last week. He also explicitly looks at the major American tech companies when formulating an appropriate response to Trumps taxes. So services. Trump may then determine the playing field for his part of the tax struggle, he has little to say about the answers of his opponents in the trade war.

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