Only a third of China’s trade surplus was with the United States, and only a third of the U.S. deficit was with China. That makes for tricky math for the president-elect.

U.S. President Donald Trump has promised to address a longstanding trade deficit with the European Union, saying he will reverse that by imposing tariffs or making the EU buy more U.S. oil and gas. In an "America First Trade Policy" memo issued on his first day back in the White House on Monday,