Toupin, D.: Bilateral Trade Balances as Political Fiction: Per-Capita Evidence, Welfare Analysis, and the Anatomy of a Manufactured Grievance in U.S.–Canada Relations

The counterfactual assertion that the United States is economically victimized by its trade relationship with Canada rests on three serious compounding errors. The first is conceptual: "deficit" is a fiscal term properly applied to budgets or stock depletion. The attempt to apply it to voluntary exchange instantly results in a category error equally incoherent regardless as to whether the exchange in question is international or domestic, as all trades are—inherently and by definition—voluntary