We imported 4 times more from China than they bought from us.

Somethings wrong in River City.

Pres. Trump should highlight this disastrous report. He is totally right about every country on the planet taking advantage of the USA.

"In the international trade area, the language is almost always about how we must export, and what’s really good is an industry that produces exports. And if we buy from abroad and import, that’s bad. But surely that’s upside-down. What we send abroad we can’t eat, we can’t wear, we can’t use for our houses. The goods and services we send abroad, are goods and services not available to us. On the other hand, the goods and services we import, they provide us with TV sets we can watch, automobiles we can drive, with all sorts of nice things for us to use. The gain from foreign trade is what we import. What we export is the cost of getting those imports. And the proper objective for a nation as Adam Smith put it, is to arrange things, so we get as large a volume of imports as possible, for as small a volume of exports as possible."

"This carries over to the terminology we use. When people talk about a favorable balance of trade, what is that term taken to mean? It’s taken to mean that we export more than we import. But from the point of view of our well-being, that’s an unfavorable balance. That means we’re sending out more goods and getting fewer in. Each of you in your private household would know better than that. You don’t regard it as a favorable balance when you have to send out more goods to get less coming in. It’s favorable when you can get more by sending out less."

Milton Friedman

This is one of the reasons Trump won.

Some FReeper please provide info on the total picture:
This report is on Merchandise only.

What are the trade numbers on ag products: corn, wheat, rice, apples, etc?
What are the trade numbers on raw material: lumber, coal, oil, minerals, etc?
What are the trade numbers on partially finished parts allegedly with final assembly in the US?
What are the trade numbers on intellectual property: Movies, books, software, etc?
What are the trade numbers on currency fluctuations?
What are the trade numbers of fraud, theft of intellectual proerty, etc?
What other trade categories are there?
Are finished autos, trucks, airplanes called merchandise?

MERCHANDISE
Then, to help us understand it, Of all non-food products in Walmart/Sams, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, 84-Lumber, Sears, Macys, Dollar General, Walgreens, CVS, etc

What percentage of the retail sales amount (not the price before mark downs) goes to China? To other foreign workers?
Does it make a difference if it is a domestic company with plants offshore or a foreign company with plants in the US?
What percentage of the retail sales amount goes to government taxes and compliance with government edicts?
What percentage of the retail sales amount goes to assistant manager and line employee costs including wages, non-mandated benefits, etc?
And to contractor/ temp agency workers?
What percentage goes to back office staff: IT, etc?
What percentage goes to management?
What percentage goes to cost of equipment, real estate, utilities, overhead, etc?
What percentage goes to marketing, PR, United Fund and other charities?

"Trump's fault!"

OK, all this says to me is that President Trump has a lot of bargaining power when it comes to foreign affairs and trade. Clearly, these countries need us way more than we need them.

This has got to stop.

What kind of people would base what they buy, on how much it costs, only?
What kind of people would _not_ try to buy products made by their own countrymen? Giving the own neighbors an income?

What kind of people have USAians become? Spiting their own countries livelihood.

I buy American made products when I can. American made goods are top quality and often not inexpensive. In Asian countries, American made goods are highly sought after and a status symbol.

I hope everyone here wears american made shoes like Redwing, Wolverine, New Balance, Allen Edmunds and Alden. The quality far exceeds not only Asian produced shoes, but often over priced European shoes as well. Many “made in Italy” products today are made by Chinese laborers in sweatshops, not by Italian craftsmen.

My car is a foreign make, but is made in the USA with mostly USA made parts. A great car and inexpensive as well.

Anyway, a lot of why US manufactured products fell behind in the 70’s and 80’s was because of bad management. US companies were run by crony clicks of elderly men who were clueless about market conditions. That’s why they were so slow to change styles and aesthetics of products with the fake vinyl rag tops on cars and fake wood on appliances that turned off younger consumers. Those two design blunders alone were major factors in the collapse of two industries. Japanese electronics in the 80’s didn’t have ugly fake plastic wood on them, no one under 60 would tolerate that crap in their house. The Apple comeback was built on a foundation of improved design and ergonomics. The iMac was the fist PC that didn’t look so ugly people wanted to hide it in a back room. And it was easier to set up and use.

Cultural factors are critical in manufacturing. German and Japanese prowess in manufacturing is an outgrowth of cultural traits.