I dont think it is as much that no-one wants to pay attention to the trade deficit issues, as it is that these are long term, evolving and in some ways structural problems that almost all economies face from time to time to one degree or another.
Our economy has always been rather lopsided in terms of production capacity and much of the problems are due to legacy issues in an evolving world economy that are not going to be solved by a clever spin on the issues.
Infrastructure development also plays a significant part in that demand for our mined commodities can ramp up quite quickly as happened with China, but the infrastructure to support this expansion can lag several years behind the demand creating bottlenecks.
Other than rescources and food of one sort or another, our small popluation generally does not lend itself to easy introduction of mass-production due to the absence of a significant local market to support the testing/absorb excesses/provide labour etc. In any case, mass production is often a race to the bottom in terms of local wage levels, overall profit margins and potential.
An usual short term fix is to adopt aggresive mercantilist trade policies as Japan did/does and as many other countries in Asia attempted to one degree or another following Japan's example.
This can be succesful in the short run, but ceases to be succesful one more than a handful of countries adopt similar policies. It is not too likley to be succesful in our case and likley to result in our shooting ourselves in one of more of our feet.
Identification of market niches that can be profitably exploited and take advantage or elements of our geographical situation and current population is usually the path the is followed although this strategy usually is a long term one.
