This section covers recent dynamics around U.S. trade. Many factors determine how competitive U.S. exports are abroad and how competitve imports are in domestic markets. In the short-run, changes to interest rates, exchange rates, price levels, trade policies, and domestic and foreign supply and demand, all play a role in determining the value of U.S. exports and imports and the overall trade balance. While this section is still in draft format, the idea will be to connect the available data for relevant economic indicators to charts on this page, and then to include some summary text to connect the charts to policies and recent events. Any feedback is welcome, and can be addressed to brianwdew@gmail.com.

Draft -- Summary text will go here. For example, in April 2017, the trade balance worsened as imports increased, particularly from China, Canada, Vietnam, Iraq, and Italy. Imports to South Korea, Japan, and China increased over their April 2016 level. Over the same period, exports to Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, and the UAE all decrased. Imports from France decreased as well.