Trade is good as long as it is fair. Nafta 2.0 attempts to do that. A surplus or deficit is not necessarily bad or good. We have a deficit with a lot of countries that trade reasonably fair because we have the $ and they don't. It is not about surpluses or not. Never has been. Trump defined it that way but i don't and most experts don't either. In the case of China it is both unfair and lopsided.

If we need potash from Canada it is ok to have trade deficit in that commodity, or uranium or lumber. It is ok when Canada buys stuff from us they need, have similar labor and environmental laws etc to keep the production side fair.  Mexico less so but that is what Nafta negotiations tried to hammer out in a process to improve it. The alternative is often not that we make it, it is that we just import from elsewhere like Asia. For me we are more likely to help ourselves trading closer to home if at all possible. Illegal immigration from Mexico is way down and central american is the problem now.

Nafta rules, according the the WTO - the referee on trade, prohibits COOL- it is that simple. The industry could do it voluntarily if they wanted but they don't. Folks need to come to grips with that. Remember the definition of insanity and the serenity prayer.