Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 2/6/20

Trump's wide-ranging duties on Chinese products helped shrink the bilateral trade gap in 2019, though federal data showed that Americans turned to other countries instead for more imported goods, Pro Trade's Doug Palmer reports.

The Commerce Department released figures on Wednesday showing that the U.S. trade deficit with China (the gap between exports and imports) shrank by about 18 percent to $345.6 billion last year. That's down from a record high of $419.5 billion in 2018.

But, but, but: The overall U.S. trade deficit in manufactured goods was relatively unchanged at $1.048 trillion, indicating that importers turned to other foreign sources for their products after Trump slapped duties on China. The beneficiaries of that shift include Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam, as well as EU nations.

As for ag: The U.S. imported record amounts of food, feeds and beverages in 2019, and the annual surplus in agricultural trade shrank to $23 billion last year in part because of Chinese retaliation against American farmers and ranchers.