Comments for Trade Arithmetic and China at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 5 out of 5 comments http://www.cepr.net Wed, 22 May 2013 02:12:42 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/trade-arithmetic-and-china#comment-18960 Currency manipulation is a export subsidy PLUS a trade tariff. It is bidirectional. - JayR Wed, 19 Sep 2012 03:16:12 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/trade-arithmetic-and-china#comment-18952 Dean's arithmetic may be right, but the fact of the matter is that under WTO rules the subsidies that the US gov is targeting may be illegal (they may also be determined to be legal, we'll have to wait for the hearing). Currency undervaluation, however, is a different story. It may be having a bigger effect, but from what I've read most analysts agree that the WTO rules don't address this and if the US were to take a case against China (presumably that an undervalued currency amounts to an export subsidy) the US would lose the case. - k Tue, 18 Sep 2012 21:16:57 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/trade-arithmetic-and-china#comment-18929 It's true that service workers in the U.S. do not make as much as factory workers here, but they may make about the same amount as factory workers in China - especially when you figure in the free room and board that Chinese workers are given when they're locked in to their factory dormitories. That seems to be the long-term economic plan for the U.S. though, i.e., to bring down living standards for the majority of workers in this country to an equivalence with those in the developing world. - S.D. Jeffries Tue, 18 Sep 2012 06:24:17 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/trade-arithmetic-and-china#comment-18921 When these cases are filed do they ever amount to anything? - Kat Tue, 18 Sep 2012 03:07:44 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/trade-arithmetic-and-china#comment-18919 Is the $56 billion the total value of the parts or the value added in China? The other day Krugman mentioned in his editorial that only a small part of the value of an iPad is added in China. Unfortunately this part is critical in determining where the factory jobs are - with international "free trade" factories can be located where workers get the least pay. Those who favor this kind of trade maintain that America will become a "service economy". In practice this is not working out well; retail clerks and box-stuffers at Amazon don't make as much as factory workers in this country, and there can only be so many jobs in finance despite its expansion. International trade is not-so-simple arithmetic. - skeptonomist Tue, 18 Sep 2012 03:02:53 +0100