US toughens stance on China trade

The US has said it will focus more closely on China's trade policies, and has set up a task force to ensure it complies with global requirements.

Trade representative Rob Portman said that the US was readjusting its view towards the Asian economic powerhouse.

China is a mature trading partner and has to enforce intellectual property rights and open its markets, he said.

‘The new globalized capital markets are rapidly bringing
both cash and technology to the place that will earn it the highest rate of
return. Fifty years ago, that place was America. Now, it is Asia. So, the
factories go up in Shanghai...not in Cincinnati. But still, in the Buckeye
State, people hardly notice. They go about their business peacefully, even
rather tickled not to have the factories. After all, that means they can now
move up the socio-economic ladder. 

Let the Asians do the sweating. They will do the thinking!
The only question is, what will they think about? Most likely, it will be about
how they will refinance their house, borrowing from Asian savers, in order to
continue buying gadgets and gizmos, manufactured by Asian producers. 

As they borrow more and more,
these poor Sons of Liberty chain themselves to more and more debt. Not just
theirs, but the nation's. Two and a half trillion dollars in debt has been
added to the federal government's burden during the George W. Bush years; no president
in American history has ever done more damage to the nation's finances. Nor is
this the sort of debt that will be paid off by the debtors. 

It is debt that will be carried
forward, refinanced, and refinanced again...so that generations not yet in the
womb will be shackled to millions of dollars worth of it before they even begin
to toddle.’ 

Imperial Decline

Many "respected economists" on all sides are saying the situation cannot go on... something is going to give. Some pylons are going to crack.... Still a few too many money fluffers are talking up the situation so heisters can go on heistering... and wage more wars to "save the day"... The brick wall is just around the corner...

From the ABC

Huge trade deficit shocks market

In a shock result, Australia's monthly deficit on trade in goods and services has blown out to $2.69 billion in January.

That is more than double the figure that financial markets had been
expecting and is a $1.5 billion deterioration from the December
outcome.

The value of Australia's exports, which surged in December, plunged 7
per cent in January although rural exports, noticeably cereal grains
and wool are up.

Metals and metal ores and minerals have declined sharply in the month, while imports are up 2 per cent.

The Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, says he is surprised by the deficit.

Mr Vaile says it is an unexpected glitch given the nation has been enjoying a strong export market.

 

Gus Imports:

A Glitch? Surprised?  This government would not have a clue at what's going on, except of course robbing Peter Poor to pay Paul Rich...

Anyway see the cartoon that heads this blab and note the date...

From the NY Times
(article re the ports and the Dubai company)

"We need a net inflow of capital of $3 billion a day to keep the economy afloat," said Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr., a former trade official in the Reagan administration who is president of the Economic Strategy Institute. "Yet all of the body language here is 'go away.' "

At least initially, those who support increased globalization were relieved that Dubai appears to have backed away from a confrontation with Congress.

"It is our hope that this relieves some of the political pressure," said Nancy McLernon, senior vice president of the Organization for International Investment, a lobbying group in Washington representing the United States subsidiaries of foreign multinationals.

"People were starting to question the benefits of foreign investment," she said. "We haven't seen this since the Japanese bought the Rockefeller Center."

DP World's takeover was a special case: a state-owned company from the Middle East buying a sensitive American asset. Most multinationals that invest in the United States come from Western industrial democracies and are unlikely to be subject to such scrutiny.

The flap over the ports acquisition alone is unlikely to make a consequential dent in foreign investment flows into the country, most economists agree.

"I don't think this is going to have a major effect on capital flows into the United States," said Ben Stapleton, a partner specializing in mergers and acquisitions at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell in New York. "It will just affect a deal at the margin every once in a while."

etc... Read more at the NY Times
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Gus is perplexed:
In order to sustain its economy the US needs to have Investments (read sell the farm) of 3 billion dollars A DAY... That represents more than one trillion dollars per year on top of the trade deficit of the same amount. In ten years from now taking into account acceleration of the process, one can assume that the US would have been bought by overseas interest (a lot from China and Arabic interests) to the tune of thirty trillion dollars... peanuts some might say when the annual US budget is several hundred trillion dollars a year....

But of course the money that is coming back to the US in US dollars is already tainted with funny deal and and unreality becasue that money is only the product of massive credit allowed...

So the poor and the discontent might see an abuse of trickery in market power and cost manipulations when they can't even afford a glass of clean water... These people of course would never be a threat to the rich but rich extremists might take on a dirty fight on their behalf... I know, the US is preparing its troops for the future dirty wars but is this the world we want to live in? A world unable to share? unable to care? Forget charity, that's piddley currency ... a currency designed to make some of us feel good while the selfish political fires are burning the back lots... We need fierce action at political levels... urgently...

From Al Jazeera [extracts]

US threatens China over currency
Wednesday 22 March 2006, 8:38 Makka Time, 5:38 GMT

The senators, Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, and Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, are in China to discuss the issue.

Schumer and Graham are authors of a bill that threatens China with a 27.5% tariff on its exports to the US unless Beijing allows the yuan to strengthen significantly against the dollar.

The Bush administration opposes the Schumer-Graham bill, but it could go to a vote by 31 March, less than a month before China's president makes his first trip to Washington as president.

Many American politicians and manufacturers say the yuan is undervalued, giving China's exports an unfair advantage in trade and widening a trade gap that hit a record $202 billion last year.

Economists say China's economy relies too heavily on exports and investment and not enough on consumption, while savings rates in the US are too low, causing it to lean on borrowing from overseas to finance spending.
-----------------------
Gus laughs
at the Tom Toles cartoon at the NY Times as, "apparently", at the change over of the US presidency, the Clinton aids removed all the Ws from the keyboards of the white house for a prank... Thus El Bonsaio is preparing his own prank by burning the place down and removing all the $ from the treasury... Nice one.

From the New York Times

China's Trade Surplus Surges Past $11 Billion in March

By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: April 11, 2006
HONG KONG, April 11 — China disclosed today that its trade surplus surged to $11.19 billion in March, its second-highest monthly surplus ever and a level that could feed trade frictions in advance of President Hu Jintao's visit to the United States next week.

Soaring exports and slowing growth in imports caused the Chinese surplus to more than double compared to March of last year, and nearly eclipsed China's record monthly trade surplus of $12.02 billion, set last October.

The surplus in March was especially significant because China usually runs modest surpluses in the first quarter. During the second quarter, factories step up their shipments to the United States and Europe of everything from toys to DVD players in preparation for the Christmas retailing season.

read more at the NY Times

(see cartoon at the head of this line of blogs...)

From the BBC

China makes US trade concessions
China has made a number of trade concessions to the US ahead of President Hu Jintao's visit next week.
Eager to smooth the way before Mr Hu's trip, Beijing has agreed to remove its ban on US beef and make it easier for US firms to bid for public contracts.
Also promising to clamp down on pirated goods, China's Vice-Premier Wu Yi made the pledges at talks in Washington.
It was separately announced that China is buying 80 additional 737 planes from US giant Boeing worth $4.6bn (£2.6bn).
'Need results'

US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez welcomed the successes of the latest Sino-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting, but cautioned that proof would be in the implementation.

"The real outcome of this meeting, of course, will be known when we see the results," he added.

read more at the BBC

From the New York Times

New Criticism Falls on 'Supplemental' Bills

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: April 25, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 24 — Tucked inside an emergency spending bill that the Senate will take up this week are provisions far afield from the legislation's main purpose of paying for the war in Iraq and hurricane recovery. There are farm-program provisions totaling $4 billion, for instance, along with $700 million to relocate a rail line in Mississippi and $1.1 billion for fishery projects, including a $15 million "seafood promotion strategy."

While each program has supporters who can make a case for its urgency, together they have helped to increase the "supplemental" bill's price tag to $106 billion, $14 billion more than President Bush requested and nearly $15 billion more than the House has approved. And they have focused new attention on what many fiscal conservatives and watchdog groups consider a growing problem: the use of emergency spending bills for initiatives that critics say should be considered through the regular budget process
read more at the New York Times

Gus can see that the Yanks can vaguely add up a budget to the closest billion

from the ABC

Trade deficit disappoints economists
Australia has run up another disappointing set of trade figures, with the result for May exceeding financial markets' forecasts by $1 billion.

The forecasts had centred on $1.3 billion as economists inspired by the previous month's results looked for a further improvement in exports.

But the figures for May show a shortfall on trade in goods and services of $2.3 billion - a drop of 3 per cent.

Offshore earnings have fallen almost $560 million.

Coal, other mineral fuels, manufactures, wool and meat were all weaker.

Imports continued to increase, rising 3 per cent.

----------------------

See cartoon at the head of this line of blogs...

US defends stand over WTO

Tuesday 25 July 2006, 3:26 Makka Time, 0:26 GMT

The United States insisted on Monday that it was still committed to successful WTO trade talks and hit back at critics who accused the world's biggest economy of plunging the global body into crisis.

US negotiators refused to take the blame for the collapse in Geneva of the latest round of talks among six key players at the World Trade Organisation, which left the WTO's Doha Round aimed at lowering trade barriers on indefinite hold.

Senior lawmakers said that for now, the US administration should go its own way by pressing ahead with bilateral free-trade pacts with major trading partners such as South Korea and Malaysia.

"The United States was willing to make concessions at the table if some of our other allies wished to do so. They did not," Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, said.

"We're still willing to be flexible," he said. "But, on the other hand, the stuff that was on the table at Doha would never have been approved by Congress."

From the ABC

China FTA will be comprehensive: Downer
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says Australia does not want to disrupt investment plans in the automotive and clothing industries through its free trade negotiations with China.

It is understood the issue was on the agenda at a federal Cabinet meeting today amid reports some ministers are concerned China will demand tariff cuts for the industries.

Mr Downer says it is a complex and difficult negotiation.

"This negotiation with China is just that, it's a negotiation, and we want to make perfectly clear to the Chinese that we believe in a comprehensive and credible free trade agreement," Mr Downer said.

"We're trying to squeeze concessions out of China just as they're trying to squeeze concessions out of us."
---------------------
Yes Mr Clowner, says Gus, but remember the proverb; "squeeze a lemon if you like bitterness"... Or this one: "when you walk a rocky road, your cast-iron friend can destroy your earthenware..." And by the way has someone told you yet that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

And do you know that to have free trade agreements with tariffs is not really free trade, is it? Yes, it's an NRFTA...

See cartoon way above...

Drought blamed for trade deficit increase

The drought is having an increasing impact on Australia's trade accounts.

Australia has notched up a substantially bigger than expected trade deficit in the month of December.

A rise of 2 per cent in the value of imports has combined with a 1 per cent dip in exports.

The result is a seasonally adjusted trade shortfall of $1.34 billion.

That is $439 million more than the November shortfall.

----------------------

Gus: see cartoon at top of this line of blogs and read the following blogs to see how the trade deficit under Johnnee has grown like a heap of smelly garbage... And of course "he's not to be blamed" for it... Our seven years of lean leathery cows must be the culprit... Nothing to do with our tendency to buy more stuff we don't need with money we haven't got...

From the BBC

The US has already complained to the WTO that China is essentially subsidising some of its industries.

---------

Gus: all the pots, the oven, the cook top and the grubby kitchen sink calling the kettle black.