Trump claims countries are 'cheating' the U.S. on trade. What does that mean?

President Donald Trump and his allies use the term “cheating” to describe countries cheating the U.S. on trade.

The White House didn’t provide evidence for this.

The formula for calculating tariffs leaned on how much of a trade imbalance a country has with the U., not on evidence of cheating.

There are ways a country can “cheat” on trade, by ignoring rules of international trade policy.

The U.S. trade deficit in goods (but not services) with a particular country divided it by the total goods imported from that country.

Lesotho ( 50 percent ), Saint Pierre and Miquelon , Cambodia ( 49 percent ), Laos ( 48 percent ), Madagascar ( 47 percent ), Vietnam ( 46 percent ), Sri Lanka ( 44 percent ), Myanmar ( 44% )), the Falkland Islands ( 42 percent ), and Syria ( 41 percent ) Experts say it’s unrealistic to expect tariffs will change the trade imbalances of these small economies.

In 2024 , the U.S. had trade surpluses with countries such as the Netherlands , Hong Kong , the United Arab Emirates , Australia and the United Kingdom .

Yet these countries stand to be hit with the 10 percent minimum tariff.

One thing the top 10 countries are n’t doing is cheating on trade, experts agreed.