<P> Economies such as Japan and Germany which have savings surpluses, typically run trade surpluses . China, a high - growth economy, has tended to run trade surpluses . A higher savings rate generally corresponds to a trade surplus . Correspondingly, the U.S. with its lower savings rate has tended to run high trade deficits, especially with Asian nations . </P> <P> The notion that trade deficits are bad in and of themselves is overwhelmingly rejected by trade experts and economists . According to the IMF trade deficits can cause a balance of payments problem, which can affect foreign exchange shortages and hurt countries . On the other hand, Joseph Stiglitz points out that countries running surpluses exert a "negative externality" on trading partners, and pose a threat to global prosperity, far more than those in deficit . And Ben Bernanke argue "Persistent imbalances within the euro zone are...unhealthy, as they lead to financial imbalances as well as to unbalanced growth ." "The fact that Germany is selling so much more than it is buying redirects demand from its neighbors (as well as from other countries around the world), reducing output and employment outside Germany" </P> <P> Several countries consider the trade balance as an important factor: Some have said that China pursues a mercantilist economic policy . Russia pursues a policy based on protectionism, according to which international trade is not a "win - win" game but a zero - sum game: surplus countries get richer at the expense of deficit countries . </P> <P> "In the foregoing part of this chapter I have endeavoured to show, even upon the principles of the commercial system, how unnecessary it is to lay extraordinary restraints upon the importation of goods from those countries with which the balance of trade is supposed to be disadvantageous . Nothing, however, can be more absurd than this whole doctrine of the balance of trade, upon which, not only these restraints, but almost all the other regulations of commerce are founded . When two places trade with one another, this (absurd) doctrine supposes that, if the balance be even, neither of them either loses or gains; but if it leans in any degree to one side, that one of them loses and the other gains in proportion to its declension from the exact equilibrium ." (Smith, 1776, book IV, ch . iii, part ii) </P>

If a country’s imports of goods and services exceeds its exports