That’s overly simplistic.

The US buys goods and commodities that China produces. China buys goods and commodities from the US, but at a lesser rate. While this means that technically China is earning more than the US, the US is receiving the things it needs and can cover this trade deficit with its loans or other income. Expecting trade deals to be financially equal when each nation has different imports and exports is naive.

Secondly, tariffs never cost the exporter money. This is for two reasons. 1) A good portion of the increased price of Chinese products is passed along to the consumer, not the company. 2) China simply responds with tariffs on American goods and we’re back to square one.

Tariffs are largely viewed as outdated by economists except in punitive measures. For example, a big reason the Great Depression was so drastic was because every country put tariffs on imports to try and promote domestic products, but all this did was stagnate trade and limit the economy. People had less money and everything became more expensive.

Tariffs are okay in small amounts. Sometimes they are necessary, but only selectively. Using them to bludgeon countries into submission like Trump is doing is awful.