Great ideas.
You might also consider adding:
"refuse to buy products which say 'Made in China'.
When you buy such products, you are subsidizing RED (let's not forget it is RED, as in COMMUNIST) China's slave labor practices. Many of the products you see on the shelves of Wal-Mart and other retailers fit into that category, their public pronouncements notwithstanding.
And be discerning too: the Communist slave-labor-produced products are not limited to little decorative pieces of junk or cheap particle-board furniture, many high-end products fall into this category as well.
I try to avoid buying Chinese whenever possible. Sometimes it is unavoidable, but there have been times I have done without an item for a time just because it was Made in China. Not that all other countries are that great, but at this time we need to reduce our trade deficit with the Chinese and I'm just doing my part. Have you noticed how different and unusual its getting to be to find something that's made in America?
And you're right about not only junk. I've been setting up a lot of computers on my job and the Dells say "Made In China" all over them. What we spend millions on automating they can do with a huge room full of workers with soldering irons.
That's a given (though it's getting really difficult these days) whether the olympics are there or not. Always buy U.S. Made. It's why I don't shop at Wal-Mart. Statistically, everything at Wal-Mart comes from China.
As you say, it has grown to far more than "little decorative pieces or cheap particle-board furniture."
At the rate that we are losing the furniture industry, it may become very difficult to buy any American furniture in the next few years. I looked at Havertys 10K (Havertys is a large furniture chain that is publicly owned and thus does quite a bit of disclosure -- I would like to have Levitz's numbers, but I don't believe that they are publicly owned) and they are rapidly moving all of their purchases overseas. Some of their lines are already 100% sourced from overseas. (In all fairness, Havertys is also making purchases from India, and is trying to increase rapidly its Vietnamese purchases since apparently they are price competitive with the Chinese.)
Here are the November "highlights" for our trade numbers, and it is a grim picture. All of the records mentioned in the notable section (after the tables) are records for either deficits, imports, or origin of imports.
Monthly Trade Highlights
November 2004 Highlights
This page shows the Balance, Exports and Imports for the current month and prior month, along with the percent change and dollar change between the two. The last column of the table shows the last time the percent change (or dollar change) was larger. Some interesting facts about this month's International Trade in Goods and Services report can be found at the bottom of the page.
Goods and Services on a Balance of Payments (BOP) Basis, seasonally adjusted - series began with January 1992 statistics.
All Values in billions of dollars
Percent Change from Prior Month
November 2004 (Billions of $) October 2004 (Billions of $) Percent Change from Prior Month Last time the Increase/Decrease in Percent Change was larger/When it Occured Goods and Services Balance -$60.3 -$56.0 -7.7% -10.0% from September 2004 to October 2004 Exports $95.6 $97.8 -2.3% -4.0% from May 2004 to June 2004 Imports $155.8 $153.8 1.3% 3.6% from September 2004 to October 2004 Goods (BOP Basis) Balance -$64.1 -$60.1 -6.7% -9.3% from September 2004 to October 2004 Exports $66.5 $69.2 -3.8% -5.8% from May 2004 to June 2004 Imports $130.7 $129.3 1.1% 4.2% from September 2004 to October 2004
Dollar Change From Prior Month
November 2004 (Billions of $) October 2004 (Billions of $) Dollar Change From Prior Month Last time the Increase/Decrease in Dollar Change was larger/When it Occured Goods and Services Balance -$60.3 -$56.0 -$4.3 -$5.1 from September 2004 to October 2004 Exports $95.6 $97.8 -$2.2 -$3.9 from May 2004 to June 2004 Imports $155.8 $153.8 $2.0 $5.4 from September 2004 to October 2004 Goods (BOP Basis) Balance -$64.1 -$60.1 -$4.0 -$5.1 from September 2004 to October 2004 Exports $66.5 $69.2 -$2.6 -$4.0 from May 2004 to June 2004 Imports $130.7 $129.3 $1.4 $5.2 from September 2004 to October 2004
- The November goods and services deficit ($60.3 billion) and the November goods deficit ($64.1 billion) were records.
- November imports of goods and services ($155.8 billion) and November imports of goods ($130.7 billion) were records.
- November exports of services ($29.0 billion) and November imports of services ($25.2 billion) were records.
Goods on a Census Basis (seasonally adjusted)
Deficit
- The November deficit ($62.9 billion) was a record.
- The November petroleum deficit ($17.8 billion) and non-petroleum deficit ($45.1 billion) were records.
Exports
- January - November 2004 exports ($744.1 billion) have increased $82.8 billion (12.5 percent) from January - November 2003 exports ($661.4 billion).
Imports
- November imports of $130.4 billion were a record.
- November imports of foods, feeds, and beverages ($5.4 billion), industrial supplies and materials ($39.6 billion); and consumer goods ($32.4 billion) were records.
- November imports of petroleum ($19.4 billion) were a record.
- January - November 2004 imports ($1,335.9 billion) have increased $189.7 billion (16.6 percent) from January - November 2003 imports ($1,146.2 billion).
Country and other highlights (Census Basis, not seasonally adjusted)
- The November deficit with Canada ($7.3 billion) was a record.
- The November deficit with Japan ($7.3 billion) was the highest since October 2000 ($8.5 billion).
- The November deficit with the NICS ($3.1 billion) was the highest since October 1987 ($3.4 billion).
- The November deficit with Korea ($2.3 billion) was a record.
- The November deficit with Russia ($1.3 billion) and November imports from Russia ($1.6 billion) were records
- The November import value of crude oil ($13.4 billion) was a record.
- The November deficit in Advanced Technology Products ($5.8 billion) was a record.
FTD Web News
NEW TRADE DATA RELEASED 14 October 2004! Get the basics! Learn more! See what's been released!
PROFILE OF EXPORTING COMPANIES 7th profile of U.S. exporting companies. Covers 2001 and 2002.
SHORTER FOREIGN TRADE WEB ADDRESSES Tired of "www.census.gov/foreign-trade/... whatever"? Shorter is better... and easier to remember. See our list of new, shorter web addresses. (January 6, 2004).
PRODUCT CATALOG We have "U.S. Trade Data on Electronic Media"... which, essentially, means trade data on CD-ROMs. Find out about the data, what's available, the cost and the layout of the files.
AES Public Meetings: Learn when and where!
Export Regulations Seminars: See the full schedule!
Here are the 2004 year-to-date China numbers, followed by a table of the 2003 numbers:
Trade with China : 2004
NOTE: All figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.
Month Exports Imports Balance January 2004 2,593.1 14,069.7 -11,476.6 February 2004 3,033.7 11,314.8 -8,281.1 March 2004 3,372.5 13,807.9 -10,435.4 April 2004 2,718.2 14,695.2 -11,977.0 May 2004 2,895.6 15,026.1 -12,130.5 June 2004 2,732.5 16,931.7 -14,199.2 July 2004 2,662.1 17,562.6 -14,900.5 August 2004 2,682.0 18,068.4 -15,386.4 September 2004 2,855.6 18,376.3 -15,520.7 October 2004 2,941.4 19,717.7 -16,776.4 November 2004 2,975.1 19,605.7 -16,630.7 TOTAL 31,461.8 179,176.1 -147,714.3
- 'TOTAL' may not add due to rounding.
Trade with China : 2003
NOTE: All figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.
Month Exports Imports Balance January 2003 2,069.8 11,403.5 -9,333.7 February 2003 2,048.7 9,629.6 -7,581.0 March 2003 2,423.1 10,110.0 -7,686.9 April 2003 2,121.9 11,521.9 -9,399.9 May 2003 1,984.3 11,884.7 -9,900.4 June 2003 2,119.6 12,127.3 -10,007.7 July 2003 2,067.4 13,438.6 -11,371.2 August 2003 2,034.4 13,764.9 -11,730.4 September 2003 2,091.0 14,747.5 -12,656.5 October 2003 2,778.3 16,458.3 -13,680.0 November 2003 3,319.7 14,156.9 -10,837.3 December 2003 3,309.6 13,192.8 -9,883.2 TOTAL 28,367.9 152,436.1 -124,068.2
- 'TOTAL' may not add due to rounding.
- Table reflects only those months for which there was trade.
It appears to me that we will go from 2003's $152 billion in imports to somewhere around $200 billion in 2004 -- that's an incredible growth for a single year for such big numbers. At such a pace, our imports from China in only two or three years will eclipse those of Canada.
Here's where that places China in our list of sources of imported goods presently:
Imports (Goods)
Rank Country Imports (Year-to-Date) Percent of Total --- Total, All Countries 1,342.2 100.0% --- Total, Top 15 Countries 1,028.2 76.6% 1 Canada 235.1 17.5% 2 China 179.2 13.3% 3 Mexico 143.2 10.7% 4 Japan 118.3 8.8% 5 Federal Republic of Germany 70.2 5.3% 6 Korea, South 42.4 3.2% 7 United Kingdom 42.1 3.1% 8 Taiwan 31.7 2.4% 9 France 28.7 2.1% 10 Malaysia 25.7 1.9% 11 Italy 25.4 1.9% 12 Ireland 25.2 1.9% 13 Venezuela 22.8 1.7% 14 Brazil 19.1 1.4% 15 Saudi Arabia 19.1 1.4%
FTD Web News
NEW TRADE DATA RELEASED 14 October 2004! Get the basics! Learn more! See what's been released!
PROFILE OF EXPORTING COMPANIES 7th profile of U.S. exporting companies. Covers 2001 and 2002.
SHORTER FOREIGN TRADE WEB ADDRESSES Tired of "www.census.gov/foreign-trade/... whatever"? Shorter is better... and easier to remember. See our list of new, shorter web addresses. (January 6, 2004).
PRODUCT CATALOG We have "U.S. Trade Data on Electronic Media"... which, essentially, means trade data on CD-ROMs. Find out about the data, what's available, the cost and the layout of the files.
AES Public Meetings: Learn when and where!
Export Regulations Seminars: See the full schedule!
Source: FTDWebMaster, Foreign Trade Division, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, D.C. 20233
Location: MAIN: STATISTICS:TRADE HIGHLIGHTS:TOP TRADING PARTNERS
I cannot remember any previous cases where double digit growth like this has occurred on this scale (it is easy enough to find minor cases). We have created a behemoth like the world literally has never seen -- China will be the first 1 billion-plus population wealthy country, and it will come into that state with a vile, totalitarian government.
(All numbers are from the Census Department's foreign trade statistics area of its website.)