This paper attempts to find out that trade conflicts between the US and China are apparently caused by the US’s trade imbalances with China and the accumulation of trade deficits, but the main cause is the difference in economic structure between the two countries. Moreover, the trade imbalance between the US and China is a structural problem caused by the differences in industrial structure. It is not Issues that cannot be resolved by trade negotiations in short term, including temporarily purchases of certain commodities such as aircraft and agricultural products, a significant increase in tariff rates on imported and exported goods, or adjustment of exchange rates. I would like to suggest that the problem of trade deficit that the United States is currently experiencing is a long-standing problem of domestic and international division of labor, the formation of a global value chain, and difference of the industrial structure of each country. I point out that this is beyond the scope of the US-China trade negotiations alone. As a result of this research, the problem of trade imbalance between the two countries can be summarized as follows. First, the US trade deficit is largely attributed due to the manufacturing deficit. In other words, the trade deficit of the manufacturing industry accounted for 90.3% in 2015 and 83.9% of U.S total trade deficit in 2017. In particular, China has been the key driver of the trade deficit in the US since 2006, due to the relatively high proportion of manufacturing in the domestic industry among the comparing countries. Second, the share of the US trade deficit due to Japanese manufacturing export rapidly dropped from 74.3% in 1991 to 44.2% in 1995, 21.7% in 2000, and 12.1% in 2005, while the share of the US trade deficit due to Chinese manufacturing export raised starting at 15.7%, 20.4% in 1995, 27.1% in 2005, and 52.1% in 2015. So it can be analyzed that China’s share has replaced Japan in the share of U.S trade deficit. Third, the trade imbalance between the United States and China has simultaneously appeared in the trade of the United States with major trading partners such as Japan, Germany, Mexico, Korea, and Vietnam. This is because these major trading partners also have a relatively high share of manufacturing in their industries compared to the United States in terms of their industrial structure. Therefore, the US trade imbalance problem arises from differences in industrial structure among countries, especially in manufacturing, and it is difficult to overcome the US trade imbalance problem unless the industrial structure is adjusted. Fourth, the trade imbalance between the United States and China is also due to the differences in economic structure between the two countries, which is difficult to solve by other factors such as tariffs and non-tariff barriers without these key factors. The current repeated tariff retaliation, undermining and worsening the development of trade between the two countries, cannot fundamentally solve the trade imbalance problem. Based on trade imbalances arising from trade with China, the US could pressure China to further deepen its economic reforms and openness In various aspects, including opening up the domestic market in China, enhancing the transparency of the state-led economy, building a market economy system, eliminating tariffs and non-tariff barriers, improving the business environment of foreign-invested companies in China, and technology and intellectual property rights protection. But there is a limit to fundamentally solving the US trade imbalance through various economic pressures, such as tariff retaliation. The reason for this is that, as analyzed in this paper, the key reason for the trade imbalance between the United States and China is inevitably caused by differences in industrial structure between the two countries.