President Donald Trump’s approach to international trade is driven to a large extent by his belief that the United States is being unfairly treated by other countries.

His main supporting evidence is the trade deficit – the US buys more than it sells internationally.

He has referred to the deficit as losing money. In one tweet he wrote about losing $500bn (£388bn) a year as a result of crazy trade with China. No more, he promised.

One of his central economic objectives has been to reduce it. In November 2017, his first year in office, he referred to the total deficit with all trade partners of almost $800bn a year as unacceptable. He said: “We are going to start whittling that down, and as fast as possible”.