Posted on 10/05/2021 10:56:54 AM PDT by MNJohnnie
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services rose to a record high in August, largely on the back of a rise in imports as businesses continued to build up inventories in response to strong consumer demand.
The Commerce Department said in an Oct. 5 statement (pdf) that the trade deficit—the difference between exports and imports of goods and services—rose by 4.2 percent in August, hitting an all-time high of $73.3 billion.
Imports rose 1.4 percent to $287 billion, while exports edged up 0.5 percent to $213.7 billion.
Consumer goods imports saw a relatively sharp rise of $2.7 billion in August, led by pharmaceutical preparations, industrial supplies and materials, organic chemicals, toys, games, and sporting goods.
Nicole Wolter, President and CEO of HM Manufacturing, which makes parts for power transmission and precision mechanical components, told NTD in an interview that robust demand has left many companies scrambling to fill orders amid shortages of materials and labor.
“It’s rough. If it’s not workforce, it’s material. And if it’s not material, it’s your sub-components. And it just keeps trickling down,” she said, adding that her firm has been forced to pass on some costs to customers.
Wolter said the supply crunch has exposed the vulnerability of globalized just-in-time supply chains.
“We’ve had to actually machine components that we don’t normally do, just to get our customers out of a bind. It’s crazy,” she said, adding that she would like to see more reshoring of supply chain components to alleviate what she called a “very vicious cycle.”
The Commerce Department report also showed that the politically sensitive goods deficit with China—the largest the United States runs with any country—rose by $3.1 billion in August to $28.1 billion.
Former President Donald Trump was deeply critical of the U.S.–China trade deficit, which he sought to whittle down by negotiating a deal built around a pledge by Beijing to buy $200 billion more in U.S. goods and services over 2020 and 2021.
According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), a nonpartisan research organization that tracks the status of China’s purchases from the United States relative to its commitments, Beijing is well behind on this pledge.
For 2020, China’s total import shortfall was $73.2 billion, or 58 percent of the target, according to PIIE, while through August 2021, Beijing was on track to end the year more than 30 percent short of its buying commitment.
U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai, the Biden administration’s top trade negotiator, said Monday that the United States plans to launch new trade talks with China, while maintaining Trump-era tariffs and pushing Beijing to fulfill the import pledges.
Tai also vowed to press the Chinese regime for “frank” talks in a bid to end Beijing’s unfair trade practices, speaking of the need to take “all steps necessary to protect ourselves against the waves of damage inflicted over the years through unfair competition.”
She also said Washington would start a “targeted tariff exclusion process” to exempt some Chinese imports from punitive U.S. tariffs, with potential additional exclusion processes in the future.
Ah DUH!
I try to buy non chinese stuff as much as possible.
My old knee pads wore out. Went to a big box store the other day, 4 brands all made in China.
Same with a dehumdifier I needed to buy this summer. All China.
I would have thought the decoupling from China would be happening by now.
Due to a stolen election, America first, has become destroy America first.
Don’t toss those old knee pads. Send them to the RNC.
Wait! Isn’t there supposed to be supply shortages and cargo ships not able to unload?
So which is it?!? Consumers getting record high imports or consumers forced to do without imports because of shortages?
Wolter said the supply crunch has exposed the vulnerability of globalized just-in-time supply chains.
“We’ve had to actually machine components that we don’t normally do, just to get our customers out of a bind. It’s crazy,” she said, adding that she would like to see more reshoring of supply chain components to alleviate what she called a “very vicious cycle.”
“My old knee pads”
Knee pad trivia (at least mine); Each pad has two straps. You don’t have to use the top strap unless you’re going to do something like run track. Learned that from an Amazon reviewer of the knee pads I have.
Back to the 1970s....
Will Biden wear a sweater if heating gets too expensive all winter? And take up peanut farming?
And I thought the Biden people said this was a few weeks of TEMPORARY INFLATION that might be over by the start of Autumn?
Maybe Autumn, 2029?
I feel a great malaise taking over my emotions even as I type these words.
56 Ships waiting at L.A., more at Long Beach, and other ships still adrift
since the mooring areas are already occupied.
Wait until they hit shore for off loading, and then see the trade deficit escalate.
Normal transport of containers a year ago was approx. $2,000;
last week the reported expense per container is $16,000.
Don't worry, the FED has stated that inflation is "transitional" <- do you believe that ? .. /s
With workers being paid to stay home and management being fired for refusing the vax, how could U.S. productivity possibly be down?
Why are we financing a nation that is preparing for WWIII?
It’s actions against Taiwan, the South China Sea nations,
and it’s other neighbors should have had it cancelled years
ago.
I never bought into the China trade on the scale we let it
climb to.
The world helped install that dirty old chomo marxist and now they’ll pay for it. But no more mean tweets.
If these goods were ordered in August, are they not now sitting in metal boxes on huge ships just offshore of Los Angeles and other west coast states? It would be interesting to see a projection of what the physical and economic effect is going to be over the next few months from this huge bubble in the delivery of Chinese products is going to be. Just curious...
Hmmm that is a good question
>>I try to buy non chinese stuff as much as possible.<<
Some things it’s simply not possible, but I’ve had a decades long boycott on Chinese made goods. I can tell ya, 85 to 90% of all that I purchase is manufactured somewhere other than China.
If more Americans would do the same, we’d bust this insane off shoring American jobs to Communist China.
Look at the labels.
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