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Subscribe to RSSA trade war with China will do nobody any good, least of all American workers and consumers.
Congress wants to fire a salvo in that war by passing legislation that would punish China with trade tariffs. The levies would push up the price of the relatively cheaper goods China exports that fill shelves in U.S. department stores and malls.
American lawmakers, with an eye on November elections, want to push China to let its currency float freely against the dollar and stop promoting Chinese exports by what they say is deliberately keeping its currency, the yuan, cheaper than the dollar.
Voters may think that talking tough with China is a good idea, but many experts say be careful what you wish for.
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Supporters of the bill argue it would save U.S. jobs against unfair trade competition. Critics say trade sanctions won’t do much to help American workers or consumers.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” James Thompson, the American-born chairman of Crown Worldwide Holdings, a global shipping company based in Hong Kong, told a group of American reporters on a recent trip to China. “It will shift jobs to Mexico and Brazil – not the U.S. And from the (American) consumers’ perspective, it will put higher prices on the products they buy in the U.S.”
A rising yuan could put pressure on companies making products in China to look for places to make those goods more cheaply. But if low-cost manufacturing is your objective, there are a lot of other low-wage countries to consider before setting up shop in the U.S.
Low-cost Chinese goods have also been a boon to American consumers and helped to contain inflation in the U.S. That trend could reverse if China lets the yuan's value rise more quickly.
Supporters of a “get tough” trade policy are also hoping that a higher-valued yuan would make U.S. exports more competitive relative to Chinese companies. But U.S. manufacturers would still have to compete with other highly developed countries like Germany and Japan. The prices of those goods wouldn’t be affected by a free-floating yuan.
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As if US consumers are not being hurt everyday by continuing to contribute to the trade deficit by purchasing so much from China. If the market is to work, informed consumers should be aware of what their purchasing decisions are doing to the value of the dollar and as a result, their continued ability to afford to buy things when the dollar will no longer be accepted. If we could start to think about anything further in the future than 1 minute, perhaps we would make decisions differently.
"American-born" means Chinese, maybe born in the USA but a dual citizen with Hong Kong, and obviously the first first loyalty of the American-born businessman who was quoted, is there in Hong Kong.
Then the same with Mexico and Brazil! Doesn't matter how cheap we can get stuff from them if we don't have a job and money to pay for it!
Thank you John Schoen for being a proxy for the US chamber of commerce...!
Slap tariffs on them ALL!
“It’s a double-edged sword,” James Thompson, the American-born chairman of Crown Worldwide Holdings, a global shipping company based in Hong Kong, told a group of American reporters on a recent trip to China. “It will shift jobs to Mexico and Brazil – not the U.S. And from the (American) consumers’ perspective, it will put higher prices on the products they buy in the U.S.”
Not surprising that the chairman of a "global shipping company based in Hong Kong" would think it's a bad idea. Jobs being "shifted to Mexico" is a win for the U.S.. Every job created in Mexico is one less illegal immigrant crossing our border. They won't need Mr. Thompson's global shipping company, they can ship it north on trucks.
"Low-cost Chinese goods have also been a boon to American consumers"
Right, If low cost Chinese goods didn't leave them unemployed in the first place.
unemployed and ill, w/ the lead in in toys and jewelry, toxic dry wall, etc., etc., etc.!
There are jobs. We just don't want to do them.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/09/27/financial/f063017D17.DTL&ao=all
yeah, ill, like in... salmonella eggs, E. coli, asbestos, trans fat, Union Carbide in Bhopal India, ford explorer roll-overs, etc etc etc
.
I reserve the right to pay a higher price for something (anything) made in the United States because that means someone in the U.S. has a job making it. In addition, what is the point in paying a few dollars less for a Chinese-made product when that product (a) will fall apart shortly; (b) will poison you; or (c) sicken your children because it's full of lead? Sign up for listserv@scpsc.gov and you will see that virtually EVERYTHING recalled is manufactured in China. Wonder if the U.S. bedbug problem has anything to do with all the Chinese imports?
Please !!!
Choose one only. American jobs that pay decent wages or cheap goods from China. Or tell me how you can have both.
When I shop I'm always looking for products that are made in the US. I'm more than happy to pay a premium for an American made product, but most of the time there are NONE! Maybe the retailers should at least give us the option.
I am thoroughly tired of hearing how carefully we should treat the Chinese. The old men who run things in Beijing have a sense of entitlement that rivals that of the old Mandarins! It's like they expect us to drop to our knees and kiss their fannies for the priviledge of buying their stuff and making them rich. It is past time they learn that this is not the natural order of things, and hasn't been since old Mao murdered off all of the intelligensia during his "cultural movements". It is past time to echo their ruthlessness, in a manner that would make old Sun Tzu proud!
Dumya sold $3 Trillion in Treasuries to the Communists to pay for his unfunded Medicare Part D and the tax cuts for the rich. How do you propose paying them back since the Greed Over Patriotism economic terrorists wrecked our economy??????? No tickie, no laundry, mofo.
Tariffs were created to protect both the producers of American products and the American workers. It is time to remove any tax benefits to American corporations that outsource any American jobs and reduce the tax shelters and benefits of ALL American corporations that do so. If an American corporation is doing business as a corporation outside the US, it should be deemed as a foreign corporation doing business in the US and their tax status should be subjected to a much higher tax rate with no tax shelters and benefits: tax them as single individuals.
I believe there are other places other than China that would deliver goods at almost if not the same price. That place is not America (as some of the less rabid comments on this article point out), but Mexico, Hong Kong, South Korea, and, no doubt others. It would'nt affect American jobs but it would stop China from their games that hurt the trade defecit. Let them try and sell their goods elsewhere and we'll get cheap goods from elsewhere as well. We have choices where we oursource our manufacturing to; China has no choices, there is only one huge economy to sell to in the world (us).
You are probably right about the other places but that does nothing to address our total trade deficit. In fact the consolidation into china makes it easier to address (and scapegoat) but the reality is we spend too much irrespective of where it's made from. In fact, some of those countries you named moved their manufacturing to china so china takes the blame but they take the profits! And if you actually calculate the highest currency reserves PER CAPITA, it ain't china, taiwan if it were the size of china would have 60 TRILLION dollars, and even they would be towered over by the likes of Abu Dhabi and other OPEC nations.
You are wrong about only one huge economy to sell to... Europe is huge (and their largest trading partner now is china, not the US) and the rest of the world is growing and then there is the up and coming chinese market itself which we could miss out on if cry instead of adapt.
China has already begun the process of shifting labor intensive manufacturing out of their country and gearing up capital intensive manufacturing. They are already the world's largest manufacturer of both wind turbines and solar panels. While our politicans troll for votes by passing nonsense legislation, China is moving forward on their next 20 year plan. China already exports more to Europe than the U.S. We are only 4.5% of the world's population. Asia has 56% of the population. China will not really need us much longer, except for the capital to build a bunch of new high-tech facilities, and that is already flowing into China.
I would say they do need us. They need a place to send there excess population, so that they bring their aging parents over, and get them into subsidized housing and on foodstamps along with scooping free food from the food pantries. Creative bunch of folks.
Peter China is an export oriented economy, that means: They FEAR becoming a consuming oriented economy.
They know their power lies on having trade surplus, exces cash, positive cash flows, etc. Do we really believe our power lies in debt and worthless paper?????
Consuming oriented economies resemble Club Med economies or service oriented economies. They all lack hard goods negotiating power. Meaning they can be replaced easily because fragile needed services get cut during crisis, just ask Spain or Greece.
This is not a good idea with China at all. Some of us have opened our own small business to help us during this tight economy with no jobs in sight for the middle class and the small businesses.
I am really sorry yuhmad, I hate to bring this to you, but you will have to work to manufacture your own products.
Who would say that this boils down to being jobless and cheap, to busy and wealthier.
John Schoen, working with your bare hands might get you some calluses. credit was a lot easier, maybe you can move to China.
You don't bite the hand that feeds you. We insist on piling up the debt, covered mostly by the Chinese, then we turn around and tell them where to get off? Stupid, insane, and suicidal. We need to STOP SPENDING ourselves into oblivion NOW! We as individuals are TOLD to pay off our debts....gee, how bout this runaway gub'ment?
I was in a Pendleton Mills store the other day looking at some shirts...I looked at the tag and they were made in China....Pendleton Mills, a decades old American company from Pendleton Ore..That was it for me, there is nothing made in America any more...I couldn't get over it, Pendleton mills made in China.
This cheepie computer monitor, makee my eyese go squintee!
Now, I needey cheepe glasses too!
We need more chinese food then we gettie skinny and sexie!
ooooooooooooooooh like i'm scared. i say kick um in the ass. i'm sick of their freaken crap cheapy junk products anyway.
another bunch that needs a good boot as are all the idiots who brought their stupid manufacturing over there. big mistake,a bunch of jerks.
We're looking to the Chinese economy for ways to save jobs here in the U.S.? I've got a way... Tax and regulate ALL DRUGS!!! Does the Government have a say so in what we choose to put inside of our bodies? I don't think so. Can drugs make people do stupid things? sure... sometimes. Should we as a society educate both children and adults alike on what the ACTUAL, SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN consequences may be if they should ingest said drug? of course... You wouldn't down a bottle of bleach if someone said it would give you a buzz would you? NO. Because you know the health hazards of that product. By doing this, not only would we see a massive influx of completely new tax revenue streams but we would also in effect create millions of new jobs, while simultaneously putting gangs, drug cartels, the mafia, hmm and I dunno maybe the TALIBAN, and anyone else who profits off of the prohibition of drugs out of business. How many American citizens are dead or behind bars because of a "Drug War" the U.S. Gov waged not only on America and it's citizen but on the citizens of the world. Americans, it's time we take our country back! We put politicians in office to serve the needs of the people, not to get rich off of the lies and false propaganda they force feed us everyday. Make no mistake people we are all witness to the single costliest war of all time, and until we unite make a stand and demand justice, we are our own worst enemy.
When people wake up and think about their purchase, and where it's made, maybe.. just maybe we as a country can regain our prominence in the global economy.
There ARE products made in this country and I for one am doing all I can to locate and purchase those products. Just this past weekend, my wife convinced me we needed new dinnerware. (OK.. it was almost 20yrs old) In lieu of buying the chinese made set, we purchased Fiesta, made in West Virginia. Granted it cost a few bucks more, but it kept my neighbors (and ALL Americans are my neighbors) employed. I've also bought work and dress boots made in America, and they were actually much less costly than the competitions product made in China.
If you look, you can find American made products. The choice is yours. Buy American and hopefully there will be jobs for your grandchildren. Buy imported, and sell future generations into indebtenured servitude paying off our debt.
Change starts with 1. Make that change now. I did.
When it cost the same to import a product as it does to produce that same product here at home, then and only then, can we claim a level playing field.....................This has been long over due.
The Walmarting of America has pretty well killed us. I remember the first time I walked into Wally World. American made, NO credit cards, and GOOD stuff cheep (sorry Ollie) Then Sam died, and when I went to Fla to help my father in law buy a TV, I saw the new Wally crap. Sad, was all I could say. 10 years later, I won't go there. Last time I gave them any money was whan the Eagles would ONLY sell there newest disc there. Bought 6. And looked at what it was, could see this future coming. The Chinese are hard working people, and SOCIALIST!!!! Look what's happened now. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. Old statement, still applies. How really sad, we are now a 3rd world country.....................
What the heck does "Dumya" mean?
I realize both of you are either hypnotized or being paid to insert utterly stupid comments here, but can't you make a salient point? Or are you just diseased or mentally defective beyond help?
There is no way the USA can compete with China on the basis of low cost manufacturing. There is also no way the USA can continue to pioneer high tech products without a solid industrial base. Offshore manufacturing has only given away trade secrets and bankrupted the country. What is needed are tariffs. The USA has enough natural resources to be a completely self contained economy and not import anything from the rest of the world. Our leaders have sold pieces of America off one by one for foreign military bases. This is not needed with the militarization of space. Let's become self sufficient again! If the USA were ever to get into a conventional war, we'd lose. It is time to restore economic strenght, national sovereignty and the value of the dollar. To hell with Harvard Economists.
Bingo mister,or ms.
We wouldn't even be having this thought had it not been Bill Clinton insisting that free trade with China would be a win-win for the USA.Sold down the old river,that's what we are.Good buddy corporations lobby to Congress for their help to fleece us Americans.Now, we worry that we might piss them(China) off?Hell,most of us with any sense are so pissed we could start a war with Washington,D.C.!We'll be shooting our Chinese AKs and ammo when we do! If they run, they'll get a sporting chance.
Schoen has shown himself to be a puppet of the elite and corporate propaganda machine, another sellout journalist slave to the almighty buck. Dirt cheap goods for the American consumer are hardly the ultimate measure of trade with China and only a shortsighted perspective would take this as the top priority. The elite and corporations want China's dirt cheap labor for profits and don't give a damn about American or the American workers. China is a communist nation and any job going anywhere but there is a step in the right direction . . . even if the jobs don't come back to the U.S. Untimately, it's up to every citizen in the U.S. to cease buying anything inported as much as possible. If you don't make it here in the U.S. you don't sell it here . . . PERIOD! Enough of sellout corporate journalism such as this . . . wise up American!