[yojo]

Having a trade surplus doesn’t mean you’re cheating.

If I make products better/cheaper than you, I’m going to sell more to you than you are to me.

Ditto if I have some valuable resource you need that represents a large share of my economy. The fact that you need my germanium more than I do doesn’t mean I’m ripping you off.

[bitshiftfaced]

I agree that a deficit could be healthy and fine and doesn't mean that the other country is cheating. The problem is how some countries have ruined it for everyone else by exploiting the current system. For example, after the first round of Trump tariffs, Chinese companies began moving factories to Mexico in order to take advantage of USMCA.