Posted on 09/20/2013 7:52:27 AM PDT by MichCapCon
In a recent op-ed in The Detroit News, Teamsters President James Hoffa criticized trade deals in the United States saying, “It is time America’s major import wasn’t cheap foreign goods and its major export wasn’t good U.S. jobs.”
Hoffa used the South American country of Colombia to make his point, saying that exports to the U.S. from Colombia fell 4.5 percent between May 2012 and March 2013.
But if Hoffa is implying that the U.S., and Michigan, are being hurt by trade deals, he won’t find much support from the Department of Commerce.
For example, exports from the U.S. to Colombia have increased from $5.6 billion in 2005 to $16.4 billion in 2012. U.S. imports from Colombia have increased from $8.8 billion in 2005 to $24.6 billion in 2012.
And in Michigan, exports to Colombia have increased from $58.6 million in 2005 to $224.9 million in 2012, with most of that coming from transportation equipment and chemicals. Michigan’s biggest trade partner is Canada, which receives $25.4 billion of Michigan’s exports in 2012.
“The story is the incredible growth of globalization and the U.S. has been in the forefront of that,” said James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “We are trading much more internationally than ever before.”
In the last four years, Michigan exports have grown five times faster than the state’s economy (Gross Domestic Product), said Mark Perry, a professor of finance and business economics at the University of Michigan-Flint, and a member of the Mackinac Center’s Board of Scholars.
Perry said Michigan’s exports lead the growth in the state’s economy. In 2009, exports were 9.3 percent of Michigan’s GDP and that increased to 14.2 percent in 2012. Michigan’s exports were $57 billion of the state’s $400 billion state GDP last year.
Perry said Michigan’s total international trade activity (the state’s imports and exports combined) increased 48 percent from 92.5 billion in 2009 to $136.6 billion in 2012.
“We have to remember that 95 percent of the world’s consumers are outside of the U.S. and foreign markets are vital to Michigan’s economy, especially its car industry,” Perry said.
Hoffa said in his Detroit News column that: “Workers on both sides of the deal get screwed while corporations rake in record profits.”
Perry said that was not true. More than $360 million in profit sharing checks will be paid by Detroit’s Big Three automakers to hourly workers with millions more in profit sharing bonuses going to salaried workers.
Hoffa did not respond to requests for comment.
Look at history...the protectionist Smoot-Haley tariff during the Great Depression caused a trade war that blocked foreign markets for US goods and probably worsened the effects of the Depression and cost thousands of jobs.
Its getting cheaper to do business here. Its really that simple.
A Minnesota electronics company recently started assembling wide flat screen televisions in the Detroit area simply because it was cheaper than having them shipped here from China. The components are still coming from China but the company says the increasingly business friendly environment has them looking at deals with local suppliers. Its also likely that foreign companies will move manufacturing here to the states as well. Imagine if we had a business friendly federal government.
Many FR posters will violently disagree with this article and imply that you are a FreeTraitor for posting it.
I don't think they should use that as an example of "Michigan Exports Exploding".
1) $16.4 - $5.6 = $10.8 increase in exports
2) $24.6 - $8.8 = $15.8 increase in imports
3) $15.8 - $10.8 = $5 billion more in imports than exports
And when the rail cars go LNG shipping internally will get cheaper or not rise dramatically, and LNG for Trains is coming. I go to hear a gent on the all trucker channel on Sirius and he noted he felt the nature of trucking and use ( short hall only ) will change with Rail making great cost effective inroads.
Michigan has pretty good Rail to get goods out of State. Sounds like a Win-Win to me, especially if we drill this "black swamp" and find more Natural Gas than we know what to do with...
We sit on an ocean of natural gas and have massive hydroelectric potential.
I was talking to a friend in Canada about their standard of living being far above what could normally be supported by their industry. He points to cheap energy as the reason. He also pointed out that its why A lot of Canadian money goes into anti drilling groups here in the USA. Canada makes a lot of money selling cheap hydroelectrically produced energy to the USA at a considerable mark up, primarily in the northeast.
you will find most of the free traitor people are merely regurgitating the union line....
tell then to go back to their union hall and they will go away...
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