November 12, 2016

Trump Slams China for Stealing US Jobs that are Already Flooding Back Home


Donald J. Trump, the President-elect, has been indicting India, China, Mexico, and Singapore for “greatest jobs theft” in the history of the America, proclaiming that the US companies are moving jobs to these countries avowing to bring them back.

His bleak rhetoric bashed China for ripping United States in trade and playing like a fiddle on North Korea. He further says that the US has lost 70,000 factories ever since China entered into World Trade Organization (WTO) threatening to impose 45% tariff on everything from China declaring it a currency manipulator, competing unfairly, and economic boogeyman to secure core of its economy, exports at the cost US manufacturing jobs.

Labeling Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) a job-killing treaty for Americans, he intended to stop it and aimed to renegotiate North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). “They are never going to leave this country. A Trump administration will renegotiate NAFTA. If we won’t get the deal we want, we will terminate NAFTA and get a much better deal for our workers.”

United States experienced a mass trade deficit in goods of $258 billion with China during the first nine months of CY2016; imports valued at $337 billion and exports amounted to just $79 billion, according to US Census Bureau.

In 2015 and 2014 also, United States suffered trade deficits in goods of $367 billion and $345 billion with China. This goes on to corroborate that against $1 of exports, United States imports $4 worth of goods from China.

But there are many countries in the world except China which relished goods trade surplus with the United States. Although Trump has methodically influenced the voters’ conscious and trapped them in the mesh of their own sentiments about China stealing their jobs but the facts remain far-fetched.

During the period January to October, China’s export fell by 7.7% to $ 1.71 trillion on year-on-year due to global weakening demand and imports were down by 7.5% to $ 1.27 trillion; running a trade surplus of $ 441.6 billion for the first ten months of 2016.

The flip point is that China itself is becoming victim of the stolen jobs to countries like Cambodia, India, Vietnam, and Bangladesh where workers earns half or even quarter of the workers’ earnings in China; mainly due to rural-to-urban influx, higher wages, employees’ expectation of raised life style and China’s focus to independently produce quality goods.

Over these circumstances, around 24% of the US companies have already or thinking to move back manufacturing to the United States. US Reshoring Initiative tells that 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been returned to US in the last five year, 60% of which from China and if we add up plants opened by foreign investors in the US, the figure reaches to 250,000. From 2010, nearly 01-million factory jobs have been added to 11.45 million manufacturing jobs. So Trump is lamenting on an issue which is out-dated now and he is just “screaming about yesterday’s problems”.

Yes, there are still a large chain of US companies manufacturing in China such as Foxconn which produces all of Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and Macs in China but remember China is the second largest market for Apple. China manufactures Apple products for just $7 from components made in the US costing $179, sold at retail price of $500 & profits US economy, company, workers and shareholders.

“Many large auto makers such as General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. are increasingly reliant on sales to the Chinese market, and Hollywood is seeing China more and more as a profit center for its movies and entertainment.” Boeing Co. and Qualcomm Inc. are among some of others.

These and many other companies have moved manufacturing in China for reducing cost of production which has widely benefited to the United States, otherwise on the brink of disappearance. If China denies factories to West, as it is already planning to make country technology-independent, it would starkly affect the economy of the United States and Europe.

The manufacturing cost for production of goods back home will be highly unworkable for many companies, endangering millions of American jobs associated with imports from China. While China has enormous funds at its disposal, it will never in sorts of shilly-shally to develop all technological advanced products from micro chips to aerospace.

Increasing proposed tariff to about 45% on everything from China will make goods expensive to the US consumers depriving them the cheaper goods and exposing them to a monopolized expensive market.

If Trump lives up to his nebulous election campaign promises, he would not only jeopardize not only the largest export market of key US companies but also would invite a thunderous dearness wave throughout the country.

United States is the largest economy in the world but China, on the other side, is one of the fastest growing economy and larger contributor to economic growth around the globe. And for job creation, economic growth matters the most.