As a single country, China is the US’s largest trading partner but Canada is the largest export partner.

As Trump struggles to get a NAFTA deal going on account of Canada, the above chart puts things into perspective.

Canada is the US’s largest export partner. Moreover, when it comes to goods (as opposed to goods and services), the US consistently runs a trade surplus with Canada.

The US has had a goods surplus with Canada every month since 1985. Nonetheless, Trump is incredibly annoyed at Canada and threatens to put tariffs on Canadian cars.

Here’s the broad picture.

US Balance of Trade 2011-2017

I created the above chart from downloads of these three Census Department files.

Notes

2018 Subtotals

Mid-year 2018, the US is still running an overall trade surplus with Canada, so this will likely be the fourth year the US records a trade surplus with Canada (total the first two highlighted columns).

Nonetheless, Trump is moaning. And the global chart shows it’s over very insignificant totals.

This is the true nature of the “worst trade deal in history” where Canada is now more important than Mexico.

NAFTA negotiations are at an impasse.

As President Trump threatens to ink a deal with Mexico by Sept. 30 and leave Canada behind, the New York Times asks Can Nafta Be Saved? These Two Negotiators Are Trying.

For more than a year, Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign minister, and Robert E. Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, have been locked in intense negotiations to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Negotiations, tense from the start, have become increasingly strained, with both sides fighting to win concessions and to protect themselves from the appearance of caving politically.

To the chagrin of Canadians, Mr. Trump has publicly — and at times gleefully — berated their country over its treatment of the United States, particularly its dairy farmers, and rebuked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “dishonest” and “weak” after the Group of 7 summit meeting in June. He has slapped steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada, claiming their metal imports threaten the United States’ national security.

Mr. Trudeau has openly questioned whether Mr. Trump’s promises are to be believed while Ms. Freeland has angered administration officials by giving speeches lamenting the decline of Democratic values in the West — a thinly veiled barb at Mr. Trump — and courting free-trade lawmakers on Capitol Hill.