Project Note

These graphs and charts explore the USA trade balances with China and Russia. The data source is Census.gov › Business & Industry › Foreign Trade › U.S. International Trade Data.

The source markdown file and data set @ Github Repo: Mearsheimer_NATO.

Commentary on these graphs and data at the substack American Exile.

Trade Balances

The two following graphs plot the export and import data for the years available. All figures are in USD ($) millions, as per the original source.

USA-China: 1985-2021

USA-Russia: 1992-2021

Trade Imbalances

The two following graphs plot the exports minus imports to determine in which direction the cash flow goes. In both cases, the USA runs trade balance deficits against China and againt Russia. All figures are in USD ($) millions, as per the original source.

USA-China: 1985-2021

USA-Russia: 1992-2021

Data Table

The variables “IYR” and “EYR”, from the original data set, stand respectively for “Imports Yearly” and “Exports Yearly” – the annual totals. To make the graphs, one version of “Imports Yearly” had to be set to negative numbers: “Imports”. The other variables added to the original data set include “Trade_Balance”, “Trade_Total”, and “Exports”.