Small appliances are made in China because American companies make it happen. The big companies use the cheap/slave labor over there.
As much as I despise the Chinese Communists this couldn't happen if there wasn't complient US companies willing to import.
True.
I would like to say that IMO it is not trading that hurts the US at all, its the lack of trade. We don't trade with China. We purchase from them in an a complex purchasing agreement, which we finance.
When we are able to import from, then export to, a country it makes for more balanced trade and actually creates work here.
When we have a screwed up relationship as the one the corporations have built in China, it is wrong.
It is not trading in general, but the nature of the China relationship that I DO NOT LIKE and should be stomped out forever.
Cheaper is not always better.
For every dollar we import from Mexico we have about a 75 cents export opportunity. With China, for every dollar we import we have about a 15-18 cents export opportunity.
Of those two, which relationship is better for our economy and job creation?
They argue that China is cheaper, but what has a better long term aspect on growth? With a Mexico type relationship we get cheaper, but profit making, and have export opportunities. With China we get really cheaper, for now, and thats it. The former requires a more efficient business, which has not been the focus as of late. The latter is a way to make ends meet, for now, but neglects realistic longer term, but real return, prospects.
China needs to start buying what it makes, instead of pawning that off on everyone else.
We need a go South campaign, at China's expense.
On the flip side though, if we have a strategy that focuses on making the pie itself grow bigger every year then the pressure isn't so bad. Its a race between the tortise and the hare. The latter is slow but steady 5-6% growth year on year, and the other is a wild eyed, hope for survival in a disjointed economy.
China importers are like a pack of wolves who are fighting over the existing pie, but do very little in trying to make the pie grow bigger.
There are very few, if ANY corporations that will tell you what they sell in China, in US dollars, and how much the margins are on those products.
The SEC should force them to disclose this information.
It's not "compliant US companies" that are the problem. It's a US Goverment trade policy that has given foreign governments and companies free reign in the US market to do anything they want. The US govenment has sold out US business and the American worker in its almost religious devotion to "free trade." Whose job or business will be next? Maybe yours? And yes, I agree that disloyal American companies also share much of the blame too.