b'8American Journal of Transportation ajot.com2020: COVID-19 and trade Biden overrules Trump on UAE tariff, keeping aluminum dutiesThe 2020 U.S. Importer chart (see page 12) provides a detailed lookPresident Joe Biden saidtion Day as he traveled aboard at a chaotic year in international tradea year marked by thehe would keep U.S. tariffs inAir Force One from Washing-COVID-19 crisis and political and economic upheaval. placeonaluminumimportston to his Mar-a-Lago resort from the United Arab Emir- in Florida. The reprieve came By George Lauriat, AJOT atesreversing a last-minuteafter the UAE agreed last year movebyhispredecessortotoa Trump-brokereddealto It might be said that theeconomy, the service industrychain is not always clear cut.grant the Persian Gulf nationre-establishdiplomaticrela-2020 U.S. Top 100 Importershotels,restaurants,travelThis is particularly true withrelief from the duties. tions with Israel.chartisareflectionofU.S.andbrick-and-mortarretail- multinationalswhooperateThe10%tariffontheAluminumranksasthe trade(seepage12).Con- ers,largeandsmall,havein multiple economic regimescountrys metal imports willUAEs biggest exported good tainedwithintheindividualbeen decimated by COVID- withshareholdersandremaininplacefornationalbyvaluetotheU.S.Itsold numbers is a year like no other19 related health restrictionsemployees spread across thesecurityreasons,theWhite$1.3 billion worth of the metalCOVID-19, BREXIT and a(seePeterBuxbaumarticleglobe. It comes down to howHouse announced. to American buyers in 2019, dramatic shift in US adminis- on page 6).muchisanimported$2000Inmyview,theavail- according to the Office of the trations weaved into the fabricHowmuchimpactthesmartphonereallyworth?ableevidenceindicatesthatU.S. Trade Representative.of a chaotic year in trade.tradedeficitactuallyhasonProbably just a fraction of theimportsfromtheUAEmayCRU Group, a commod-For many, 2020 will betheeconomyissubjecttoCustom declaration. stilldisplacedomesticpro- ity researcher, says shipments remembered as a singularlydebate. For example, to man- Ontheotherhand,theduction, and thereby threatenfrom the UAE were roughly bad year in all aspects. Fromufacture a smart phone or anexports of basic commoditiestoimpairournationalsecu- 11.5% of total U.S. aluminum an economic perspective, theautomobile requires importedlike soybeans or coal are eco- rity, Biden said. importslastyearthrough GDPreallytellsthestoryparts from a number of coun- nomicallystraightforwardFormer President DonaldNovember, and about 14% in betterthanunemploymenttries to assemble the finishedtransactions.AndtheU.S.Trump announced he was sus- 2019. In 2019, the UAE metal figuresortradenumbersproductforexport.Thusexportsarelargelylowerpending tariffs on the UAEsaccounted for about 11% offor the full year the U.S.dividing up the benefits to(COVIDcontinued onaluminum imports in a procla- allaluminumconsumedin GDP declined 3.5%it waseachpartyintheeconomicpage 13) mation released on Inaugura- the U.S. (Bloomberg)theworstyearfortheU.S. since the end of World War II. Even the 4% increase in GDPinDecemberwasnt enough to lift the moribund U.S. economy. No doubt, COVID-19 was the dominant factor. More than anyeconomicdepression,the COVIDpandemicinfluenced howthingsgotdoneandtheSPEED TO pattern of day-to-day life. And for U.S. trade, particularly on theimportside,thechanges werereadilyapparent.HomeMARKETdeliveriesbecamethenormit seemed Amazon delivery truckswerenowstoppingin every nook and cranny in the country, dropping off packages onbackroads,countrylanes and downtown Manhattan.andAscountrieslikeChinaLOWER others in Southeast Asia recovered, exports to the U.S. began to soarparticularly in the fourth quarter, as reflectedCOSTin the jump in GDP. t RadeG apThetradedeficitthe differencebetweenexports andimportshascontin- Experience proves cargo shipped from Asia through ued to rise, although the gapthe Seattle+Tacoma gateway gets there faster. Let ingoodsnarrowedto$82.5us show you the difference less congestion, efficient billioninDecember2020multimodal operations, and best-in-class customer from $85.5 billion in Novem- care can mean to you. When time to market is ber.Nonetheless,underthecritical, choose The Northwest Seaport Alliance. NWSeaportAlliance.comTrump Administrations tariff warsdesigned in large part to reduce the U.S. trade defi-citthe country posted three ofthelargesttradedeficit years in the nations history. For 2020, the final trade defi-cit numbers are expected to be around$900billion,eclips-ing $878.68 billion posted in 2018. Total trade is expected to be just under $4 trillion for the year well below the tally in 2018.Thereareanumberof interrelated reasons for the gap such as a strengthening dollar, whicheffectivelymakes importscheaperandexports moreexpensive,whichwas alsoexacerbatedbycounter-vailing tariffs placed on U.S. exports.IntermsoftheUS'