In today's Wall Street Journal, Senator Sherrod Brown bemoans the trade deficit.
"In just 15 years, our annual trade deficit has mushroomed to over $800 billion from $38 billion in 1993. With Mexico, our trade surplus evolved into a $90.7 billion trade deficit. With China, our trade deficit jumped to $250 billion today from about $22 billion," he writes.
To give context that you might not receive from the senator, the current account deficit is the value of exports minus the value of imports. You can have increased trade deficits even when the value of trade is growing.
So, to add the value of exports where he discusses deficits, in just 15 years, our annual exports have mushroomed to over $1.16 trillion from $465 billion in 1993. With Mexico, our exports gained 228 percent. With China, our exports jumped to $65.2 billion today from about $6.3 billion.
There are plenty of other problems with Senator Brown's arguments. But I think giving an honest look at free trade requires an acknowledgement that the whole value of trade -- imports and exports -- is larger today than in the past.