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It will go a lot higher, as there are fewer and fewer items that have a "Made in USA" that foreigners would be willing to buy. Americans dont even buy goods that are "Made in USA" so why should foreigners buy them? We have only just begun to get the benefits from free trade. We still have a few manufacturing jobs in America that are done by overpaid American citizens. Even in 2005, almost 1 in 10 American workers still actually produce something . Sooner or later all the overpayed American auto workers, office workers, insurance processors, those that work in billing, claims, call centers, accounting, etc will replaced by chinese. The trade deficit with china will go much higher, since we still have lots of jobs to move over there, and there is nothing that we produce that the chinese want to buy."

Yep. That's about the size of this "free trade" conundrum. Yep. Its all about the consoooooooomer. Producer and production be damned. Not relevant...until the balloon goes up.

Yep. That's about the size of this "free trade" conundrum. Yep. Its all about the consoooooooomer. Producer and production be damned.

Free trade has nothing to do with the consumer. Nike shoes are still expensive even though they use the cheapest labor in the world. Cheap foreign labor means higher profits, not lower prices.