Lopsided deal with China
Tell us again, please , why trade with China is so very important to the U.S. economy.
The U.S. trade deficit widened marginally in January, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported Tuesday. The gap edged up 0.2 percent to $33.3 billion, the highest level since a record September deficit of $33.5 billion.
The United States exported goods and services valued at $89.7 billion, while it imported $122.9 billion. Once again, the biggest winner was China.
In the month of January, China bought a paltry $1.2 billion in goods and services from the United States, a decrease of $0.4 billion. That's a 25 percent cut in U.S. exports to China. Meanwhile, U.S. imports from China increased $0.8 billion to $8.4 billion. That's a 9 percent increase.
Loss and gain: For every $1 worth of goods or services China bought from the United States, we bought more than $6.50 worth of stuff from China.
Month in and month out, this lopsided level of commerce continues. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being pumped into China's economy with no end in sight. Yet this is billed as a good thing.
If every time you put a dollar in your right pocket, $6.50 fell out of your left pocket, you'd have a hard time putting a happy face on it.
Some will argue that the benefit comes in the much cheaper consumer goods that Americans get to enjoy. But a pair of eyeglass frames, to use an example, that were bought three years ago and came from Taiwan, a democratic nation in which workers enjoy a high standard of living, cost no less than those bought this year, which came from China, a totalitarian state where child laborers spend part of their school day making fireworks.
And on top of all this, China takes umbrage when the United States condemns its human rights abuses and warns the United States of dire consequences if it gives aid to Taiwan, a long-time ally.
Our relationship with China has become a classic case of the tale wagging the dog, and the Bush administration, unfortunately, shows no sign of reversing the trend.