The U.S. government's approach to deal with trade deficits has failed and the country has to make big adjustments in its economic structure, a renowned U.S. economist has said.

"You can't fix your deficit problem by going after your largest deficit trading partner. It didn't work with Japan. It's not working with China," Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, said Wednesday at an online dialogue organized by the Asia Society, a non-profit New York-based institution.

The United States had trade deficits with more than 100 countries in 2021, which reflects the lack of domestic savings but not the alleged unfair trading practice of its trading partners, Roach said.

The former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia said he is very critical of the current administration for staying with an approach that was doomed to failure, adding that there are better ways to address the trade issues.

"We fixate on China because it's an excuse for not getting our own house in order in terms of managing our budget deficits over the long term, and boosting our national savings and making this less reliant on surplus savings from abroad and running massive current account and multilateral trade deficits to attract the capital. So we have created this problem. It's not China's fault," he said.

To take unilateral actions as former U.S. President Donald Trump did with China under the guise of "Making America Great Again," was "a non-starter," said Roach.

"We always like a scapegoat. We're the victims. We have a victim complex ... We need someone to blame for our problems," Roach said.

"It's high time that we recognize that we are on a dangerous path," and the United States needs to turn its attention to it before it's too late, the economist said.  

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