International Trade News from Across the World

Did Donald Trump endorse Mitt Romney because of China?

Christian Science Monitor

• Comment: “I love what Mitt was saying about China and the rest of the world, which is just absolutely ripping us off and trying to destroy this nation with a smile. And I think that Mitt Romney really sees China for what they are,” Trump told Ms. Van Susteren."

U.S. Jobless Rate Falls to 8.3 Percent, a 3-Year Low

New York Times

• Comment: “You’ve got to give credit when things are moving in the right direction,” said Mr. Blitz, who has been cautious in his assessment of the recovery. “This is not a process that is going to be done in a month or two months or a year. It could take five or 10 years to get there, but what you’re going to continue to see is what is inside this report, which is the manufacturing sector is improving.”

White House Offers Plan to Lure Jobs to America

New York Times

• Comment: "It is difficult to determine how many jobs American manufacturers are sending overseas or bringing back. But in a November survey by MFG.com, a site that connects manufacturers with suppliers, one in five North American manufacturers said they had brought production back from a “low-cost” country, up from about one in 10 manufacturers in early 2010."

Proposed jobs bill would target foreign outsourcing by U.S. companies

Washington Post

• Comment: "The Outsourcing Accountability Act would require firms with revenues over $1 billion to report how many employees they have in the United States and break them down by state; jobs abroad would have to be broken down by country. Firms would also have to track the percentage increase or decrease of these figures from the previous year."

Lawmakers urge U.S. to press China currency at WTO

Reuters

• Comment: "China will not end its currency undervaluation unless the U.S. seizes opportunities like this to insist that it does," the lawmakers said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk"Expanding and intensifying discussions at the WTO can further this effort and bring significantly more pressure to bear on China," they said."

Chinese auto-parts influx worries lawmakers

Politico

• Comment: "The gamble, however, looks less promising for auto-parts suppliers, as Chinese competitors have voraciously gained ground. Over the past 11 years, the auto-parts trade deficit with China has shot up 867 percent to almost $10 billion, according to the United States International Trade Commission. Other auto producers, such as Germany, Japan and South Korea, run surpluses with China."

U.S. lawmakers press Obama on China auto parts

Reuters

• Comment: "We need to stand up to the bully on the block," U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, said, referring to Beijing. "The bully on the block continues to take our lunch money and we need to stop that," she said."

State of the Union: Manufacturing a Better Future

EPI

• Comment: "First, some background. China currently engages in massive intervention in currency markets, buying U.S. dollar-denominated assets to boost the value of the dollar and keep their own currency artificially cheap. This acts as a subsidy to U.S. imports from China, and it raises the cost of U.S. exports — both to China and to every country where U.S. exports compete with goods coming from there. Of the nearly 6 million manufacturing jobs we lost between Jan. 2000 and Dec. 2009, 2.8 million jobs were displaced by growing trade deficits with China between 2001 and 2010."

U.S. Midwest Jobs Return as Applesauce Joins Cars to Lift Obama

Bloomberg

• Comment: "National Oilwell Varco, the largest U.S. maker of oilfield equipment, is hiring workers in Ohio and Pennsylvania and opening operations that distribute tools and service equipment to companies extracting oil from shale deposits, Williams said in an interview. The company has beaten the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, about 135 percent to 43 percent, since July 1, 2009. Improvement in unemployment, which dropped 19 percent in Ohio and 29 percent in Michigan from April 2009 through the end of last year, is a key driver for the Midwest recovery, said Jason Novak, senior economic analyst for the Philadelphia Fed."

A Trade Collision Course

New York Times

• Comment: “The Chinese have cheated,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who is a Congressional leader of the trade effort along with Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan. The group has been preparing its campaign for months. But it may be sensing a new opportunity after President Obama signaled a tougher trade stance against China in his State of the Union address last week, saying he would set up a trade enforcement unit to investigate unfair Chinese practices."

Obama says US considering free trade agreement with Georgia

Fox News

• Comment: "Obama praised visiting Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili Monday and said there is a "possibility" of a free trade agreement that is a top priority for Georgia. Obama said the U.S. will help Georgia strengthen its free market system with high-level dialogue, but did not address when or under what conditions that might expand. Georgia's leverage in asking for trade advantages grew last year, when it quietly dropped objections to Russian membership in the World Trade Organization."

In Victory for the West, W.T.O. Orders China to Stop Export Taxes on Minerals

New York Times

• Comment: "The legal setback for Beijing could set a precedent for the West to challenge China’s export restrictions on other natural resources, including rare earth metals that are crucial to many modern technologies, trade experts said."

Forget China. Will the Trade Enforcement Unit be a Currency Manipulator?

Forbes.com

• Comment: "The president’s thinking on trade matters is better represented in his announcement of the “creation of a Trade Enforcement Unitthat will be charged with investigating unfair trading practices in countries like China.” One task of this new unit will be to push China to increase the value of its currency."

Trade cheats beware: new U.S. team will come after you: Kirk

Yahoo! Canada

• Comment: "The U.S. trade deficit with China is expected to have hit a record of about $300 billion in 2011. Obama has set a target of doubling total U.S. exports between 2010 and 2015.Kirk's office negotiates and enforces trade deals. But it has only about 250 employees, which could tempt countries to think they can flout world trade rules, Kirk said."This (the new unit) will provide a much better tool basket and put more bodies in terms of being able to develop some of these cases and gather the intelligence that is necessary to take some of these complex matters before the World Trade Organization," he said."

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