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(China) Trade surplus with US exaggerated
China Daily ^ | December 25th 2010 | Li Jie

Posted on 12/25/2010 10:21:26 PM PST by Cardhu

There is a theory in statistics that says different methods used to tabulate and analyze the same set of data will yield different results. This applies perfectly to international trade.

For some time now, the United States has been pressuring China to reduce its "huge trade surplus". But do the methods used to tabulate and analyze data give us the true picture of China-US trade? Let facts speak for themselves.

Rules of origin are widely used today to determine a product's country of origin for purposes of international trade. But the rules of origin method, which originated in the 1940s, has little room for processing trade and transshipments, which are rampant in the international market today.

That is why the analyses of data through rules of origin fail to give the true picture of international trade. And that is why China has a huge trade surplus with the US.

Several experts have said that if China-US trade figures are analyzed using a method other than the rules of origin, China's trade surplus with the US would drop by at least 40 percent.

An article in Paris-based Le Figaro has quoted the World Trade Organization (WTO) as saying that China's trade surplus with the US is over-estimated by about 50 percent. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has said that the most important part of international trade is not the imbalance but value addition.

The use of rules of origin to analyze processing trade tends to distort the true picture and produce erroneous results, which has been the case with China's foreign trade. Value addition in China's exports is very low because most of the materials and spare parts used to make them are imported. But the US ignores this and counts the whole product as made in China.

(Excerpt) Read more at chinadaily.com.cn ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: china; trade
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To: central_va
"...don’t believe in trade deficits. A tariff cures both ills...   ....no reason to offshore."

You're avoiding the revenue/protection question, and you can't have both.  More tariff revenue can only happen with more imports while stopping imports means no tariff revenue.  

81 posted on 12/26/2010 1:41:20 PM PST by expat_panama
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To: meadsjn
I've seen no "union tax'n'spenders' on this thread

If you're against the freedom to trade, then you are in favor of protectionism in the form of import quotas or tariffs. If you support quotas, then you want protection for a particular special interest. Liberals use quotas as a means to protect those who make up their power base, like unions. If you support tariffs then you want American consumers to pay higher prices that only serve to enrich the government, while protecting companies that can't compete (unions again). As a conservative, how do you justify empowering government to take even more of our money?

Big government conservatives like to argue that when it comes to trade, the state all of a sudden becomes responsible, capable and reliable. And when we point out this flagrant hypocrisy, the big government "conservatives" get nasty and begin hurling epithets like traitor. They do this because they cannot justify demanding a bigger and more intrusive government on a conservative forum, and need to deflect from the fact that they've been exposed as something other than conservative.

and the fact that you've summoned your host of Free Traitor economic frauds is evidence that you have no argument.

Yeah, supporting freedom is evidence of fraud. And we're the ones without an argument? Good grief....like I was saying above about exposing you for what you truly are. We ping each other simply because we enjoy laughing at your economic ignorance. Most kids learn this stuff in high school, while some never learn at all.

82 posted on 12/26/2010 2:45:17 PM PST by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Mase
Yeah, supporting freedom is evidence of fraud.

Supporting unfair trade practices of a Communist Regime is supporting freedom?

Like I said, "Free Trade" is religion, not an economic theory. You can keep you religious beliefs, just don't pee down my back and tell me it's raining.

83 posted on 12/26/2010 2:52:14 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
Supporting unfair trade practices of a Communist Regime is supporting freedom?

Waaaaahhhhh! Mommy, someone is being unfair!!! Pollyanna's looking for fairness in life never seem to find it. Why is that?

Then, those same Pollyanna's demand government create fairness and then wonder why we end up with socialists in government. Stop whining and sniveling about getting what you asked for, Pollyanna.

Like I said, "Free Trade" is religion, not an economic theory.

Spoken like someone who has no idea what he's talking about. The level of ignorance correlates directly with the shrillness of the whining. Go figure.

84 posted on 12/26/2010 3:16:27 PM PST by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Mase
Would you like to dismantle the points I was making in post 21? Go for it. None of the other Free Traders have, maybe you will.

And yes, the Chinese are still Communists. I guess we should start free trade with Castro then too?

85 posted on 12/26/2010 3:21:22 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.)
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To: meadsjn
I've seen no "union tax'n'spenders' on this thread...

What we're hearing from are those who want higher tariffs (tariffs are taxes) that are intended to sustain American factory jobs (virtually all in unions).   So it's the same old same ol',  thugs begging for handouts and and getting ugly demanding more and more.

86 posted on 12/26/2010 3:21:44 PM PST by expat_panama
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To: Mase
Big government conservatives like to argue that when it comes to trade, the state all of a sudden becomes responsible, capable and reliable.

These multi-thousand page trade agreements that pick the winners and losers in the US economy are your example of "smaller government"?

There has been no impediment to globalism or global trade over the past two decades, and the evidence is overwhelmingly against any arguments that globalism is beneficial to the vast majority of US citizens and taxpayers.

87 posted on 12/26/2010 3:34:20 PM PST by meadsjn (Sarah 2012, or sooner)
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To: meadsjn
These multi-thousand page trade agreements that pick the winners and losers in the US economy are your example of "smaller government"?

The scary thing is, these trade agreements actually reduced government interference.

88 posted on 12/26/2010 3:39:58 PM PST by Toddsterpatriot (Math is hard. Harder if you're stupid.)
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To: ModelBreaker

We cannot have a vibrant economy without an industrial base. Steel, energy, and mining have all but left the U.S. There is a company called Rosemont Copper that is trying to open a mine in SE AZ. This mine will bring billions of dollars to AZ. The Greenies are fighting it tooth and nail, of course.


89 posted on 12/26/2010 8:55:56 PM PST by wjcsux ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell)
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To: Mase

“The State needs to protect us against statists, and if you disagree you are a traitor against the State.”


90 posted on 12/27/2010 5:50:17 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: Mase
Oh and I forgot the best one:

Karl Marx: "Free trade will destroy capitalist economies from within."
Protectionist: "Free trade is destroying our economy from within. Free-traders are Marxists!"
Free-trader: "What?"

91 posted on 12/27/2010 5:54:13 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

priceless!


92 posted on 12/27/2010 6:26:03 AM PST by expat_panama
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To: Victoria_R
Just for the record, a small percentage of Alaskan North Slope oil was exported to Asia from 1996 to 2000. Congress monkeyed with the laws to start and then stop this practice after a short period.
93 posted on 12/27/2010 8:49:20 AM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: central_va
Would you like to dismantle the points I was making in post 21? Go for it. None of the other Free Traders have, maybe you will.

To dismantle something you're going to have to present something with some structure. No one with any grasp of economics takes what you wrote in that post seriously. It only serves to reinforce our contention that you really have no idea what you're talking about.

94 posted on 12/27/2010 10:36:18 AM PST by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: 1rudeboy
That sums of the "conservatism" of the Big Government Conservatives® well.
95 posted on 12/27/2010 10:41:55 AM PST by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: 1rudeboy

Hilarious....but that’s the argument they want to stand behind. It’s bizarre, but there it is. Thread over.


96 posted on 12/27/2010 10:43:59 AM PST by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Mase
Give it a shot. You can dodge the question its ok but I think it is pretty clear. I am a professional engineer, playing around with economics is childs play.

The main point I am trying to make is that the labor saved isn't really worth it, considering we are talking a small fraction of the cost of this item. If I recalle dthe actuall labor quoted was $0.39 on a $10.00 toy. By adjusting the corporate tax rates down for those domestic producers the doll could actually be cheaper.

But free trade that exploits Communist Chinese slave labor is too irresistible.

FreeTrade™, it's a religion.

97 posted on 12/27/2010 10:51:29 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Mase
That sums of the "conservatism" of the Big Government Conservatives® well.

The problem is Free Traders™ rely on the US Tax Payer(me) to subsidize the unemployed who would normally work in these low skilled jobs here in the US. Nothing is more expensive than cheap foreign slave labor. As long as you have high fences and guards around your house you should be fine.

I am invested in GOLD. So in actuality the unsustainable Free Trade™ is helping me.

98 posted on 12/27/2010 10:58:26 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
If only we allowed the government to tax us more, no one would be unemployed!
/protectionist retard
99 posted on 12/27/2010 4:16:56 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy
If you don't want bigger government and don't want to pay higher taxes, "there is no question you have bowed to the statists highest alter[sic]"
100 posted on 12/27/2010 4:24:31 PM PST by Toddsterpatriot (Math is hard. Harder if you're stupid.)
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