To counter Trump’s prices on goods, countries can retaliate to American services

President Trump says that he is indignant by the fact that the United States imports more goods than it sends to the rest of the world. What he rarely mentions, however, is that as far as services are concerned, the tables are turned.

The service sectors – which include the finance, travel, engineering and health industries and more – constitute the majority of the American economy. Exports of these services brought more than $ 1 dollars to the United States last year.

But this domination also gives other countries a little influence in negotiations – including the ability to impose certain pain on the American economy while they seek to retaliate against Mr. Trump’s prices on goods.

The European Union, for example, could use tools designed to restrict the services entering the block in the form of a cake.

“The real lever effect of Europeans is finally on the side of the services,” said Mujtaba Rahman, director general of Europe at the Eurasia group, a political research firm. “It will degenerate before defusing.”

The United States is the largest exporter of services in the world, and a large part of these services, from financial services to cloud computing, are delivered digitally. The country organized a trade surplus in services of nearly $ 300 billion last year.